Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: EU ETS

The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) supports the ambitions of the European Green Deal, the Paris Agreement, and welcomes the inclusion of the maritime sector in the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS).

For European ports, the greening of shipping is a priority. Significant investments will need to be made in the coming years to enable the green transition of the maritime sector, including investments in port infrastructure, connection to the grid, energy storage, and the deployment of renewables in ports.

It is for this reason that the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) has joined a coalition of the maritime stakeholders in a call for dedicated funding for ports under maritime EU ETS. The joint maritime industry statement can be found at the bottom of this press release. Dedicating ETS revenues for investments is necessary to deploy much needed infrastructure for low- and zero-carbon fuels required for the greening of shipping.

“We need all hands on deck to deliver the greening of shipping. ESPO joins the wider maritime industry in calling for maritime ETS revenues to be used to support investments both on-board vessels and in ports. The creation of a dedicated fund which supports the deployment of infrastructure for low- and zero-carbon fuels both on-board the vessel and at shore is crucial to reach the aims the EU ETS is designed for” says Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO Secretary-General.

Dedicated funding for maritime and ports must be the result of ongoing trilogue negotiations to ensure that the maritime EU ETS provides the sector with the tools to go green.

European ports look forward to helping find an agreement on a maritime ETS that is fit for purpose.

The joint statement is available here as a download.

Published in Ports & Shipping

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).