Greening the Short Straits

These were the words of Christian Pryce, chief commercial officer of the Port of Dover, speaking at COP27 on a panel of governmental and industry maritime experts.

“One year on from the Clydebank Declaration, in which the UK and 23 other states set out their ambition to collaborate on green shipping corridors, it is encouraging to see progress being made and we are determined to deliver even more,” said Mr Pryce.

“We want to secure meaningful decarbonisation for the UK and international supply chains and so have made it our mission to work with our partners on both sides of the Short Straits as together we fully commit to achieving a high-volume green shipping corridor with France.”

The Port of Dover handles 33% of the UK’s trade in goods with the EU, 59% of UK-EU ferry journeys and 2.4 million freight vehicles annually.

In September, the UK government awarded the port funding for the Green Corridor Short Straits consortium’s feasibility study to establish a zero-carbon trade route, a partnership which also includes the French ports, Calais and Dunkirk.

“Spurred on by the government’s recent backing of our efforts to develop a high-volume green shipping corridor, we will progress our work with France and look forward to it being included in the nations with which the UK is formally collaborating,” continued Mr Pryce.

The Short Straits is the busiest maritime corridor in the world, carrying a significant emissions footprint. “A high-volume green shipping corridor delivering 130 ferry movements each day across the short straits being included with other shipping routes will be a transformative win for the UK,” said Mr Pryce.

Upcoming progress is set to include cleaner tonnage, particularly two new hybrid ‘super ferries’, as well as improved infrastructure including new bespoke solutions such as energy storage (battery and hydrogen) and new power connections and links.