Can we sail to Zero Carbon global trade?

Monday, June 5, 2023

In 1950, world shipping was roughly half a billion tonnes of cargo. As of 2019 it's now 11 billion tonnes. A mind blogging increase in 70 years. Shipping is one of the most resistant and slow sectors to clean up its climate act, with only a commitment to reduce emissions by 50% from the International Maritime Organisation at 2050. So what can we do to green maritime trade? And has the answer been blowing in the wind all this time?

This week Ads and Andrew are joined by Dr Christiaan De Beukelaer to discuss his new book "Trade Winds: a voyage to a sustainable future of shipping".  We discuss how a couple of weeks of research at sea turned into half a year due to COVID-19, how global shipping made capitalism even more extractive, the realities of going back to sail powered shipping and why the IMO might be more effective compared to other U.N. institutions.

Links

You can pick up Christiaan's book  Trade Winds: a voyage to a sustainable future of shipping"HERE

Read the International Maritime Organisations Carbon targets HERE

Learn more about the sail cargo organisations like Timbercoast HERE

Shout Outs

Alson Kelen and the  Waan Aelõñ in Majel (WAM) team. Check out their great work HERE