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CMA CGM partner Energy Observer

[ April 27, 2021   //   ]

As the world celebrated Earth Day on April 22, the Energy Observer vessel, a unique, hydrogen-powered floating laboratory supported by CMA CGM Group, docked in Long Beach, followed by a call to San Francisco the following week.
The California stopovers are part of Energy Observer’s round-the-world journey to further alternative-energy research and raise public awareness of zero-emission technologies.
Leveraging their common ambitions, CMA CGM and Energy Observer (EO) are working together to promote large-scale deployment of hydrogen and other clean-energy alternatives. Hydrogen is a limitless energy source that generates up to four times more energy than coal, three times more than diesel.
Energy Observer’s technology provides exciting potential for marine transport with electric propulsion completely fueled by renewable energies: sun, wind and marine currents. In addition, what makes the vessel truly unique is her capacity for storing energy in the form of hydrogen produced from seawater, a technology enabling EO to navigate the globe entirely self-sufficiently. Producing and burning hydrogen does not result in any greenhouse gas or fine particle emissions.
The learnings from Energy Observer will be used in new R&D projects undertaken jointly by the two partners with the common goal of achieving zero-emission shipping and the large-scale adoption of hydrogen as an energy source.
CMA CGM also continues to heavily invest in other alternative solutions such as wind-assisted propulsion and green fuels. The CMA CGM Group has pledged that alternative fuels will cover at least 10% of its consumption by 2023 and is committed to carbon neutrality by 2050.
In 2019, Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, initiated the Coalition for the Energy of the Future, which gathers 14 global companies committed to accelerating the development of future energies and technologies to sustain new green mobility models and reduce the impact of transport and logistics on climate change.
CMA CGM also became the world’s first shipping company to successfully test a biofuel comprising 20% recycled plant oil and forestry waste.
In April 2021, the Group reached another milestone by supporting the production of 12,000 tonnes of biomethane (equivalent to a year’s fuel consumption of two 1,400-TEU ships), a renewable green gas produced in part by the methanation of European-sourced organic and plant waste.
In 2020, the CMA CGM fleet of vessels reduced its overall emissions by 4% compared to 2019, having already reduced them by 6% in 2019 compared to 2018. Since 2008, the Group has reduced its CO2 emissions by 49% (TEU-km), in line with its objective of reaching -50% emissions by 2030.
Ed Aldridge, President of CMA CGM America and APL North America, said, “The Energy Observer partnership featuring U.S. stopovers is yet another symbol of the CMA CGM Group’s commitment to propelling energy transition. This, along with our upcoming launch of the largest fleet of LNG cargo ships to ever call the United States, is further proof we are taking action now for the protection of the environment and are eager to foster responsible growth of the U.S. economy.”

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