Is modern sailing transport the solution to climate change

so

earth this is our planet

our home and as you know

we have only one and as you know there

is a problem

in our way to live on it

california is burning the ice is melting

in the arctic

wild animals are disappearing

we are destroying our planet our only

planet

there is a scientific word to

describe everything which results from

the activity of the

human being on nature it is the

anthropogenic pressure

the pressure we are putting on nature

the scientific community you’re just to

react now

and to greatly reduce this anthropogenic

pressure

not in 10 years not in five not even

next year

but now now

in the coming days in the coming weeks

today i want to share with you three

ideas

which appears important for me because

i think these are the necessary levels

to be able to react

effectively in the very short time we

have

and these three ideas are about low tech

sobriety and action at work

but before telling you more about it i

would like to present myself

on the project i am working on because i

would like to

rely on it to illustrate the three ideas

i want to share with you today

my name is niels i am a merchant navy

officer

i’ve been working on different kind of

cargo ships

as dec officer and engineer and

five years ago we started a company with

three friends of mine aiming to develop

low carbon shipping

we have designed it with our partners

this vessel

it is a 121 meters long vessel

equipped with four wing sails kind of

sails

and this sails allows a vessel to

take advantage of the wind energy to

reduce

its fuel consumption by around 30

percent

this vessel will be operated

between the continental europe and

french guiana

in south america because it will

transport

ariana 6 the european launcher it’s a

european rocket

the building of the vessel will start

this winter

in a few weeks and we will launch it

in two years in 2022

well this brings me to the first point i

wanted to share

with you today it is about low tech

too often we mix up ecological

transition

and energy transition as if

to complete the ecological transition

we could only rely on the discovery of

new magical ways to produce energy

for example in the shipping industry we

are talking a lot about hydrogen

as if it was a miracle solution

do you know how to propel a vessel like

this

with hydrogen with green hydrogen obtain

it from

a renewable energy like the wind

it is quite simple you only need this

wind turbines power grid

electrolyzer compressor

cooling system storage devices

transport network fuel cell electric

engines

and propellers and then you can push

your vessel forward

the problem is that at the end of the

day your vessel will only benefit from

15

of the initial amount of energy given by

the wind

all the rest is lost and

all the machines used in the process are

consuming energy and resources

and it have a significant environmental

impact

otherwise there is another way to use

the wind energy on the ship

you can put sails on the vessel and the

wind will blow in the cells

and it will push the vessel forward it

works very well

my point is not to say that hydrogen is

fundamentally bad or useless we are

working on hydrogen projects and i hope

we will develop

hybrid vessel with cells on hydrogen

because it will be useful

when the wind is too low or when the

wind is in the wrong direction

but what i want to underline is that

there is nothing magic

there is nothing simple and what is

often presented to us

as new high-tech very ecological

solutions are not really so

we have not yet invented any magical

solution to produce energy

and we don’t have the time to wait for

it

so this is why i truly think that if we

want to go

toward an ecological future we have to

design

a low-tech future this is the first idea

i wanted to share with you

i now come to the second idea

it is about sobriety

do you like our vessel

if you think that our solution could be

a good solution to reduce the

environmental impact of the shipping

industry

please consider this

our vessel will be launched in two years

and it will be the very first

the wall fleet is made up of 45 000

cargo ships

and the average life expectancy of cargo

ship is around 30 years

so as you can see it will be a bit long

to adapt sales on every cargo ship

in the world and even if we were able to

do it

like this tomorrow we would be

only able to save around 30 percent of

the fuel consumption

if we want to keep the same high transit

speed

so how can we do it how can we manage to

greatly reduce

the environmental impact of the shipping

industry in the coming weeks

i think the only way is to go towards

sobriety

sobriety it means reducing the speed of

the vessels

it means using them less

it means reducing the number of ships in

the world

by stopping fabricating and buying stuff

on the other side of the planet like if

it was something normal

and this is the first thing to do and

after we can put sales on hydrogen on

the ship on whatever

and i’m illustrating sobriety with the

shipping industry

but we must apply it to all areas

our consumption of cars our consumption

of buildings our consumption of

energy

i don’t know if you are convinced by the

need

to adapt these two levels low take on

sobriety

but if you do now

how to take action

this is what i want to address in the

third point

action at work your ability to act

in your daily job as actors of the

economy

i truly think that this is how we can

make the change happen quickly

in the example of our vessel it was not

something obvious

to choose a self-propelled vessel to

transport the rocket

aryan essex it came from the people in

charge

of the logistics who decided to choose

our solution

and to hold it within the group and to

convince

the top management it was very

courageous

and we need people like this to be able

to make the change happen

all of you whether you are ceo or

young employee whether you are working

in a multinational

or a smaller company of three people

next monday you can change your company

you should try i’m not saying that you

will be

able on your own to redefine

the world business strategy of the

company but

you can put the subjects on the table

you can make proposals to your

colleagues

i will give you a few examples in our

startup we have

we are a little team but we apply

several rules

which could be applied in all companies

and i think it would have a big impact

for example in our company we have to

travel a lot firstly we try to avoid

to the maximum to travel and secondly we

made it a rule

to never take a plane for intra-european

travels sometimes it’s not simple to

travel only by train like yesterday i

came from france there was a storm

but it’s doable if ever you and your

colleagues are traveling you can try you

can propose it

how about reviewing our travel policy

for our vessel for each of our main

suppliers

we have chosen companies based

in a geocache geographically close

you could propose to your colleagues

what about reviewing

our supply policy on integrating

geographic proximity as one of the main

criteria

in order to reduce our international

imports and to reduce the number of

cargo ships

at sea

you know that meat consumption has a

huge impact

you know that we are trying to

to do our best at home but you could

propose next monday

if you have a canteen or a self-service

at work you could propose to change the

menu what about

dividing by four hour mid consumption it

would have a huge impact

you can try your electric

electricity supplier in many countries

you can choose your supplier

we have chosen one offering only only

renewable electricity

you can propose doing the same next

monday

last example but not the least if ever

your company

have has to build new spaces new offices

do you know that artificialization of

soils is a huge matter for wildlife

because every day every year we are

encroaching more and more spaces on

nature

you could propose to adopt a systematic

renovation policy

razors are causing always more and more

new constructions

well i think you get the point i truly

believe

that we should each adopt strong

measures

and promote it at work and i think this

is the way

we can manage to greatly reduce our

anthropogenic pressure

in the very short term

there is a quotation that i love from

albert einstein

who said to change the world

people must change and for the people to

change

there must want to

so this is the point do we want to

how much do you want to change

thank you

you