Why Cargo Ships Are Bringing Back Sails to Cut Emissions

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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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Now, this week, we have
an interview on Friday.

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We're gonna be talking
to Alexandre Mendron.

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He owns a boating company
where he sells boats.

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And part of that, what he's really
proud of, is his electric vehicle

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boats, so his electric motors that
he sells on a regular basis now and

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he's working with a bunch of makers.

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He creates the motors in a
manufacturing plant in Montreal

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and then ships them out worldwide.

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And it's really interesting
to see how he got into it and

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what he likes so much about it.

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So that's on Friday if you
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That's speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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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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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.