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