Swire Shipping recently released its three point strategy to commit to reducing its GHG footprint of which one of them is a practical demonstration and commitment to fund the low carbon shipping construction Project Cerulean. This project seeks to build the first low-carbon, low-cost sail-assisted inter-island cargo vessel to serve communities in the Pacific that lack cargo handling infrastructure. They plan to sign the building contract for the pilot vessel of this class by the end of June 2021 and to be completed in 12 months if all goes well.

Swire acknowledges that further reductions in their GHG footprint will require more Technical and Operational (T&O) measures for efforts to becomes technically and financially viable, they believe that the upstream development of the necessary global delivery infrastructure for sustainable low or zero carbon fuels will be expedited if Market Based Measures are introduced that more realistically price our sector’s GHG emissions. Read here for full press release

• Swire Shipping has one of the longest running operations in the Pacific Island Countries, and as a corporate entity, is well-aware of the challenges faced by island communities, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change.
• James Woodrow, Managing Director, The China Navigation Company; parent of Swire Shipping, has stated, “With many communities at risk of disappearing we must take action to drive change. We are committed to reducing our GHG footprint, ultimately to net zero by, and preferably well before, 2050.”
• Swire has committed up to US$4 million towards Project Cerulean, which is now in Stage One of Phase Two (final design and construction). 
• The building the 41 meter sailing vessel in Fiji is underway
• Swire and MCST are working with VPLP, a French naval architecture firm, on the final design, which has been informed by our design review team, inclusive of regional shipping experts with decades of experience sailing in the Pacific, and our academic partners at Hochschule Emden-Leer in Germany.
• Project Cerulean seeks to build the first low-carbon, low-cost sail-assisted inter-island cargo vessel to serve communities in the Pacific that lack cargo handling infrastructure. 
• In the midst of this effort, Swire has pledged its support for the earliest global adoption and implementation of the “Proposal for IMO to Establish a Universal Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Levy” submitted by the Republic of the Marshall Islands and The Solomon Islands to IMO MEPC 76.