The Saadé family has made a huge bet on the lower emissions their French national carrier CMA CGM's LNG-fueled megaships put out, something that was so impressive that we chronicled it almost obsessively.
From the Financial Times:
Emmanuel Macron pushes nations to back green charge ahead of finance summit
France is drumming up support for a global levy on greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry ahead of a summit hosted by Emmanuel Macron this month.
Several people familiar with the discussions said France hopes to team up with other countries to issue a joint call for members of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization to agree such a levy at its upcoming meeting in July.France is seeking to build a coalition of dozens of nations to back the idea, and has won support from Japan, Denmark, Kenya, Panama and Mexico — along with the Solomon and Marshall Islands, which have championed the idea for years — said one of the people familiar with the situation.
If finalised, the call would be a key achievement to emerge from Macron’s summit for a new global financing pact, a two-day event the French president is co-hosting with the leader of Barbados on June 22-23 about climate finance and global financial reforms.
A French diplomatic official said: “This is an initiative that some of our partners have been supporting for a long time, and this summit will give them an important political platform. It is undeniable that we will need new sources of income to finance the fight against climate change, which is why we will support this initiative.”
The lobbying push comes ahead of an IMO meeting next month to discuss new targets for cutting emissions from the shipping industry. Shipping, which carries up to 90 per cent of global trade and largely relies on fossil fuels, is a major contributor to pollution but critics say it has been slow to decarbonise because of insufficient regulation....
....MUCH MORE
CMA CGM would be not be hit as hard as their competitors, having already made some big moves toward decarbonization. That said it had to be gut-wrenchingly, sphincter-clenchingly awful when natural gas prices went through the roof in 2022.
Some of our prior posts on the LNG-powered boxships:The port of Marseille Fos and SGMF encourage the use of LNG as primary marine fuel
Marseille is the hometown port (and CMA CGM's world HQ)
Way back in 2018 we were posting:
Shipping: "Why CMA CGM ordered 'game changing' 22,000 TEU LNG-powered containerships"
I wasn't sure if construction had started on the nine-ship order CMA CGM placed last year with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (it has, see below) and saw this, from Seatrade Maritime News, April 30:...
The ships were then reconfigured to be able to haul 23,000 TEU'.
In 2019:
Shipping: "CMA CGM Leads Container Lines in Switch to LNG Fuel"
The article below expands on the quick hit from LNG World News we linked on the 17th: "Shipping: CMA CGM's Containerships takes delivery of fourth LNG-fueled vessel"
Fill 'er up: "Historic LNG Bunkering Operation Underway in Rotterdam" (CMA CGM; Total)
Considering that the Gas Agility is 135 meters (443 feet) long and yet is dwarfed by the Jacques Saadé, you get a feel for just how huge these new boxships are.
If interested see also August 25's "CMA CGM to take delivery of world’s largest LNG-powered vessel" for Rotterdam as well as "'World’s Largest LNG Bunkering Vessel Arrives in Rotterdam' (so that's how CMA CGM will fuel the new megaships)"
Also December 2019's "Shipping: 'CMA CGM bolsters its LNG fuel supply with Total deal'" and June 2020's "Shipping: CMA CGM Must Be Seeing A Pickup In Business" for CMA CGM's other fueling hub, Marseille-Fos.
September 2018
Shipping: "Why CMA CGM ordered 'game changing' 22,000 TEU LNG-powered containerships"
January 2019
Shipping: CMA CGM Took Delivery Of Its First LNG Powered Vessel
March 2019
Shipping: CMA CGM To Spend €1.2 Billion on New Container Ships
June 2019
CMA CGM's Containerships Welcomes Its Second LNG-Powered Newbuild
June 2019
CMA CGM to Have 20 LNG-Powered Containerships by 2022
September 2019
Shipping: CMA CGM Launches World's Largest LNG-fueled Container Ship
What CMA CGM is doing is really gutsy and if things work as planned, the January post "Shipping: CMA CGM May Be Building A Big Fuel Price Advantage" comes to fruition and the French mega-carrier has created quite the competitive advantage for itself..
And many, many more. Use the search blog box upper left if interested.
Hmmm...really does look a bit obsessive in hindsight doesn't it, it's a big deal.