France’s CMA CGM Creates Special Fund for Shipping Decarbonisation

French shipping conglomerate CMA CGM Group is creating a Special Fund for Energies which is backed by a five-year $1.5 billion budget to accelerate its energy transition and achieve net-zero carbon by 2050.

The official statement of CMA CGM revealed that the special fund will invest to support the industrial production of new fuels, as well as low-emission mobility solutions across the Group’s business base (maritime, overland and air freight shipping; port and logistics services; offices). It will help to support a global innovation platform developed alongside large corporations, SMEs, start-ups, and the academic and scientific community.

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO, CMA CGM Group, said, “This fund will enable us to make substantial investments in innovative projects to decarbonize our business. We have allocated the resources needed to accelerate our energy transition and that of the entire shipping and logistics industry.”

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Key Focus Areas

The first focus of the Special Fund for Energies will be to support the development and production of renewable fuels. The Fund has been tasked with (a) driving forward the emergence of industrial-scale production facilities for biofuels, biomethane, e-methane, carbon-free methanol, and other alternative fuels, and (b) increasing and securing volumes in line with Group needs, in partnership with other major industrial groups with expertise in these technologies, or with investment funds or promising start-ups.

In second focus it will accelerate the decarbonization of port terminals, warehouses and truck fleets. The CMA CGM Group stated that it operates more than 700 warehouses and around 50 port terminals worldwide. It is committed to enabling these facilities to generate enough carbon-free electricity (wind, solar, biomass-fueled, hydrogen-fueled) to become energy self-sufficient.

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A transition plan for the truck fleets will also be implemented, with a particular focus on electrifying CEVA Logistics trucks.

The third focus is to support, trial and launch projects at the cutting edge of innovation. The group said that in February 2020, it joined forces with Energy Observer to make hydrogen one of the energy sources of tomorrow.

The Group has also decided to acquire a stake in Neoline, a prototype sail-powered cargo ship set to serve transatlantic routes by the end of 2024. The CMA CGM Group’s R&D team will continue to optimize the design and propulsion of large container ships to reduce their fuel use, while developing increasingly effective solutions to help make maritime, overland and air freight shipping more energy efficient.

The fourth focus of the fund is on pursuing energy savings and improving the energy efficiency of CMA CGM employee working methods and daily mobility. There will be building energy management plan for CMA CGM Group office buildings to reduce energy use. It will encourage and incentivise employee use of soft mobility solutions.

The Special Fund for Energies, backed by USD 1.5 billion budget, will be managed by a dedicated team starting in October 2022, bringing together some of the Group’s most talented engineers, energy experts, financial analysts and project managers. It will guide the Group’s overall strategy towards developing low-carbon energy solutions and accelerating their implementation.