EnvironmentEuropeMaritime CEO

Furetank: COP21 should target trucking, not shipping

Donsö: The 2015 Paris Climate Conference, or COP21, is right around the corner. Its goal is to achieve a legally binding agreement between the 190 participating countries with regards to the climate. Lars Høglund, managing director of Furetank Rederi, hopes the meeting will have a positive result for shipping – and that regulators understand the perils of trucking.

“I hope that they will make decisions that gives short-sea shipping the chance to do more of the transportation within Europe in a more environmentally friendly way,” Høglund tells Maritime CEO.

Furthermore, the managing director would like to see more restrictions put on land-based transportation, specifically trucking. “They (truckers) should be paying for the infrastructural costs they put on society,” Høglund adds.

Furetank is striving to be a leading force in the new wave of eco-friendly shipping. The company’s tagline – not a giant, but a leader – says it all.

“In our segment of shipping we believe that shipowners will put a lot of effort in order to better their businesses from an environmental perspective in the future. This might open up new business opportunities,” says Høglund.

Furetank manages eight ships, of which six are self-owned. On top of that Furetank Chartering operates another 18 ships. As part of its green pledge, one of the fleet, Fure West, is currently being converted to use LNG as a fuel.

Furetank is located on the island of Donsö, and has its roots in an archipelago tradition going back to the 18th century.

 

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Comments

  1. Lemme see, a guy who works for a short-sea shipping company thinks COP21 should focus its emissions ambitions on trucking rather than merchant shipping. Does that strike anyone as a little self-serving, regardless of which sector is emitting more? How about we make mitigation demands on both sectors? Otherwise, who’s gonna bring shipping in line? The IMO? Shipping has known for two decades that the pollution it causes has been in the sights of the national regulators. They chose to slow-roll the problem and hope it would go away. In doing so, they surrendered their right to self-govern. Once again proving that that industry has to be forced to do the right thing.

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