Pioneering innovation and a clear desire to bring about change in the maritime industry were the focus of a virtual event convened by the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Maritime UK Solent, of the region’s MPs, local government leaders and key industry figures.
The event, which was the third in a series Maritime UK sessions being delivered across the UK, highlighted how the Solent’s maritime cluster is supporting the delivery of the Government’s 10 Point Plan for A Green Industrial Revolution and explored how politicians, research and industry can work together to share expertise and deliver ambitions to ensure the maritime sector achieves net zero.
Paul Holmes, MP for Eastleigh, chaired the event for regional MPs and councillors to hear from the Solent’s maritime sector about their flagship decarbonisation projects, including Carnival UK, Carisbrooke Shipping, Portsmouth International Port, Associated British Ports (ABP) and Wightlink.
Paul Holmes MP said:
“The Solent’s maritime industries are world renowned and I was thrilled to learn more about the innovative ways that local businesses are becoming greener and reducing their carbon footprint. The UK Government is committed to reaching Net Zero by 2050 and with the leadership being shown in the Solent, we are well placed to be at the forefront of this exciting agenda.”
Anne-Marie Mountifield, Chief Executive for the Solent LEP, Chair of Maritime UK Solent and a Director of MUK explained:
“The Solent’s maritime sector is not just pivotal for the region but also for the country’s trading capabilities as the nation’s global gateway. Maritime decarbonisation and sustainability within the sector is critically important as we develop a Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution of the Solent.
“We will continue to work with our public and private sector partners, and our outstanding research assets to play our part in the Solent’s green recovery which benefits local communities, building on pioneering work underway to achieve clean growth, and bringing jobs and investment to level up our important coastal communities while ensuring the Solent’s world-class maritime sector reaches its full potential.”
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The event was part of a national programme, designed to support Maritime UK’s bid to Government for £1billion investment to stimulate maritime decarbonisation. The bid has the support of the Department for Transport and has been submitted to the Treasury as part of the Spending Review process.
Ben Murray, Chief Executive of Maritime UK, said:
“This has been an excellent opportunity to showcase a range of innovations in green maritime, and hear first-hand the clear ambition of the maritime sector to decarbonise. With the right investment, this sector has the potential to create thousands of jobs across coastal areas, supporting the UK’s green recovery and firmly cementing the UK’s position as a world-leader in maritime decarbonisation.”
Perhaps Wightlink, Red funnel, etc, could remove the lower portholes, and provide an oar to each passenger to then row the ferries across to ‘save the planet’.
Yet the thousands of extra homes needed to be built, and the consequent CO2 in doing so, along with heating them all from all for the additional beings arriving to the UK, it may be more efficient to limit those extra consumers first before getting to radical in cutting emissions in less effective ways.
If it is an industrial revolution then surely it will mean technological advances that make power easier to obtain, vehicles cheaper and more efficient, homes and buildings cheaper to heat and light and other power hungry things like manufacturing cheaper and easier to be done locally – what we have here is a revolution built on vast amounts of taxpayer subsidies for windmills and solar power which still cannot produce anything more than a small percentage of what is required on a stable and consistent basis( and let’s not talk about capacity rather than reality). This should actually be called a green regression, not a green revolution
I note that the floating bridge does not get a mention ! Such a pity, that particular service is the greenest of the lot. Already achieves ‘net zero’ most of the time, except when they occasionally switch it on.
What utter drivel. there is no such thing as carbon neutral. remember just 20 big cargo ships make more pollution per year than every motor vehicle on the planet, and there are more than three thousand of those large ships, they wont be turned “green” unless the lunatics decide they should be given masts and sails! Its about time the soundbites of the green agenda were challenged at every opportunity.
Yes lucas – you will also have noted that the green lunatics have been demanding that the coal mine that is being debated for approval in the UK, to provide coking coal for steel production be declined on environmental grounds, however, they overlook the fact that we will be importing coking coal from overseas to make the steel – meaning more pollution to get it here and it will come from mines, with far less environmental credentials and safeguards in place.