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Why Cargo Ships Are Bringing Back Sails to Cut Emissions · How To Protect The Ocean

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  At the start of 2026, there were between 50,000 and 116,000 shipping vessels
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  trading some sort of cargo on the ocean.
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  And that is an incredible number.
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  And if you really think of what we're looking at from
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  shipping and climate change.
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  Shipping is responsible for 2.1% of the global CO2 emissions,
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  according to the International Maritime Organization, the IMO.
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  And we're gonna be talking about how some of those shipping companies are
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  trying to not only save costs on fuel, but also help the environment
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  by reducing their CO2 emissions.
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  So we're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect
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  the Ocean podcast, because this is where you find all of your latest
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  Okay.
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  Let's get into the show, because this is something that's really
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  interesting, 'cause global shipping moves roughly between 80
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  and 90% of the world trade volume.
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  Like, think about that for a second.
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  Like, that is a pretty big amount in terms of what we're looking at shipping.
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  Everything we get, like all the stuff that we get from Amazon, all the stuff that we
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  get that's shipped anywhere or even that's created and made overseas, especially if
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  you're in North America or even if you're in Europe, gets shipped to those places.
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  That's incredibly, incredibly large amount of percentages, right?
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  And then the industry, like I mentioned before, is responsible
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  for close to 2.1% of the global CO2 emissions, according to the IMO, the
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  International Marine Organization.
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  And companies are now retrofitting massive cargo vessels with rigid
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  sails and wind structures instead of relying only on new fuels.
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  So that's a really big deal here, where you have a shipping industry that is
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  massively important to the world in terms of how much it ships of the cargo
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  and how much it's involved in trade.
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  We also know that it presents a large CO2 emissions and it has a
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  problem, and it needs to fix that.
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  And there are a lot of organizations, a lot of of governments who
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  are putting regulations on CO2.
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  So whether they're gonna be putting it on the flag that these ships are sailing
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  with, whether it be Canadian or anywhere in the European Union or anywhere in
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  Asia, they will have to do something at some point, and it might be now.
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  Cargill's Pyxis Ocean is a company, was fitted with two WingWing sails,
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  each standing 37.5 meters tall.
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  And as of mid-2026, more than 100 large cargo ships, over 400
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  gross tons, have wind propulsion systems installed worldwide.
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  Now, the International Maritime Organization set a target, just as I said,
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  of at least 40% emissions reduction from shipping by 2030, with a net zero by 2050.
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  So that's a lot between like, you know, going from 40% all the
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  way to 100% by 2050 in 20 years.
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  So a lot of the work has to, and infrastructure has to be put up now.
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  So fuel costs and tightening emissions regulations are pushing ship owners
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  towards proven low-risk technology rather than waiting on new fuels
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  like ammonia or methanol, right?
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  And wind is free once the hardware is installed.
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  So unlike alternative fuels which require new infrastructure, so instead
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  of building all the infrastructure that's needed for like ammonia fuels
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  or methanol-based fuels, which are still will cause pollution, you
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  can go back to the old school way of getting across the ocean and use sails,
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  because wind is free when it's there.
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  And now things will be changing with wind, and the trade winds might
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  be changing due to climate change.
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  But we will see vessels and we're starting to see vessels who are actually
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  trying to use wind propulsion to help offset some of the costs of fuel.
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  Fuel efficiency is one of the most important things 'cause it's so expensive.
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  And now with everything happening in Iran, with everything happening in the
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  Strait of Hormuz and other places around the world, ships being blown up, cargo
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  not getting to where it needs to go, especially with oil and things like that,
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  there's gonna be a demand for safe and fuel-efficient transportation, and we're
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  getting close to seeing that already.
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  And then of course, wind can assist to cut fuel anywhere from 1% to 47%,
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  depending on the number of sails and the wind conditions at the time.
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  So it's never gonna be perfect.
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  It's never gonna be to 100%.
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  I'm not saying we're replacing fuels altogether, but we're getting to a point
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  where we can r-replace almost up to half.
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  And 100-plus ships with wind propulsion installed are estimated
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  to be saving around 100,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per year combined.
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  I think at the beginning of the show, I said they're
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  responsible for 2.1% of that CO2.
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  And that'll be reduced significantly over that time.
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  I don't know what that equates to in terms of percentages, but
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  that's a pretty big chunk.
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  Now, purpose-built wind-assisted ships could see a 50% average
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  reduction in fuel consumption per the International Windship Association.
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  So this is coming.
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  This is already here.
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  To scale it to get to where we want is really difficult, 'cause right
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  now, about one in 500 or one to a thousand ships will have some sort
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  of wind propulsion device on there.
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  But it doesn't necessarily mean that everybody's gonna have them.
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  To scale that is going to be difficult.
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  But the barrier really is the way the commercial contract structure is set.
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  So essentially, the primary obstacle for wind-assisted propulsion in
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  global shipping is now commercial rather than technological.
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  So the technology is there, but shipping's long-established commercial
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  model separates ownership from the actual operation, so the charter.
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  So the owners invest in vessels and onboard technologies, while
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  charterers typically control fuel consumption and voyage decisions.
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  So this creates a split incentive.
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  So owners bear the cost of installing efficiency technologies,
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  but charterers who control fuel decisions capture the immediate
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  financial and environmental benefits.
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  So fixing this would take standardized charter agreements
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  that split costs and savings fairly.
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  There's still a lot of things that have to do with the infrastructure of the shipping
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  industry, which I don't know much of.
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  I'll be honest.
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  I don't know much about how this all works.
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  But if there's a separation between the owner incentive and the charterer's
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  incentive, and the owners will be building the fuel efficiency part,
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  will be building like the upfront cost and paying for the capital, and
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  the charterers are more for the fuel efficient, like actually spending on fuel.
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  So that, you know, they might work together and be like, "Hey, we
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  can both make money off of this."
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  But that's something that's, gonna be a question in the future, and
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  probably one of the biggest challenges.
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  Now, the International Maritime Organization's 2023 strategy formally
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  recognized wind and other zero or near zero technologies as part of
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  the path to decarbonization targets.
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  No dedicated subsidies exist yet for wind propulsion systems in most regions.
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  So adoption is gonna be driven by rising carbon costs, so the carbon
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  offset cost, and regulation rather than direct government incentives.
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  Now even think about everything that's happening now in the world
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  with oil and gas going up and down depending on what's happening, and
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  diesel going up and down and being very, very expensive at this point.
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  Shipping is gonna get more expensive, which is gonna make
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  our products more expensive.
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  Being able to increase fuel efficiency by reducing fuel costs is gonna be probably
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  at the top of the list for a lot of these shipping companies and even the
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  companies who use shipping to get their products to you at a specific time.
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  Of course, EU as the EU always is, the funded research projects called
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  WAS or Sail Horizon or Optiwise are supporting sea trials and
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  validation in the North Sea region.
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  So there are things that people can do with all of this
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  happening around us, right?
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  There are things that we can look at, there are things that we could
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  spend time at and experiment, but we have to go faster than normal.
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  And I like how the wind aspect is, moving forward with this type of technology.
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  So I think it's really good.
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  Now, stuff that you can do is you can look for shipping and logistics
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  companies that disclose emissions data and wind-assist adoption when choosing
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  brands that ship internationally.
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  That information is not always easy to find.
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  I'm gonna be honest, like I had trouble looking for that.
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  But if you have a product that's shipping from say, the east to the west or vice
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  versa, you would wanna look at what type of companies they use to ship.
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  I think they should be saying if they wanna be transparent in their supply
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  chain so that people know - like where all this comes from, how
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  it gets there, how advanced.
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  'Cause that I think is a benefit to talk about is, "Hey, look, our ship
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  uses wind propulsion to get to where you are, so we reduce CO2 emissions,
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  and we increase fuel efficiency, which helps in the pricing of your product."
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  And for consumer relations, I think that's a big deal, but I don't know if
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  the industry thinks that's a big deal or companies actually care about that.
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  But that's something that I care about.
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  That's something you can ask your products, the people that sell
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  your products, you can ask them to do that, but I don't know if
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  that'll actually ever happen.
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  Now, of course, obviously we can support the policy conversations pushing
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  the IMO's 2030 and 2050 targets of eventually going net zero, near net
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  zero as they stay pretty ambitious.
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  Old technology is solving a modern problem.
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  Like think about that.
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  Using sails, using winds is still solving a modern problem.
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  And I think that's a real shift in looking at decarbonization.
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  It's a matter of like, hey, how do we make sure that like going back to the
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  old ways might take a little longer, or if we use it in combination, might not
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  take a little longer, but when we can use wind, that would be much better.
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  You can travel quite fast with wind using as propulsion.
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  And I think that's like an interesting concept to say, let's go back in
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  time, and let's look at what worked before, so we don't have to worry
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  about what works in the future.
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  Sometimes using fuel is not a good idea, especially in the type of world we're
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  living in right now, where we're seeing the direct climate change consequences
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  happening in front of our eyes.
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  This week is all going to be about looking at ways that we can be more
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  efficient within businesses and what businesses are doing to be more
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  efficient, like the shipping industry.
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  I thought that was kind of important, especially with our guest, Alexandre
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  Mongeon, who's gonna be joining us.
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  We're gonna be talking about electric motors for boats, which
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  I think is always interesting.
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  And tomorrow, we're actually gonna be spending more time on boats.
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  We're gonna be looking at boat-sharing economies, just like ride-share.
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  And so we're gonna see where that's gonna take us.
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  And later on, we're gonna be talking about 4Oceans and their business model,
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  and how we can earn living wages on the Thursday's episode in coastal action.
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  So we're gonna be talking about all of that this week.
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  subject, on the ocean, being that resource for you for the ocean.
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  So I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.