French sailing ship will take goods across the Atlantic and other eco-updates

The world’s longest sailing cargo ship is French, and has been delivered to its new base in Nantes after two years of construction in Turkey. 

The Neoliner Origin, which is owned by shipping company CMA CGM – headquartered in Marseille – is 136m long and can carry 5,000 tonnes of cargo. 

It has 3,000m² of sails, which fold up and can be deployed in less than two minutes and 30 seconds. The system is fully automated, controlled by a computer according to the prevailing wind.

The ship promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, and will serve transatlantic routes, where the winds are considered most favourable between Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Halifax in Canada, and Baltimore in the United States.

While the vessel has an auxiliary engine, its captain, Mathieu Poulain, hopes to do without it, even if sailing will make the journey longer. “We have these sails to help us and, ultimately, to propel us forward on their own. So we plan to perform well enough to sail under sail alone,” he told France 2, which reported on the boat’s stopover in Marseille before heading on to Saint-Nazaire. 

“This is truly a pioneering ship that proves that it works, and it’s clear that it will catch on,” said Jean Zanuttini, president of Neoline. 

“Sails are also being used more and more to assist commercial ships. I am convinced that the right way to build a ship today is with wind propulsion.” 

Maritime transport is one of the most polluting sectors. It currently accounts for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, said France 2.

Nîmes invests in flood prevention

Authorities in Nîmes, the Gard city in which half the population lives in a flood zone, is investing €52million on a gigantic tunnel under the streets to allow rainwater to drain away through the subsoil as quickly as possible.

The new tunnel – an enlargement of current ones which become saturated during rainstorms – measures 3.3m in diameter, and will increase the water flow capacity tenfold. It will be operational within two years. 

The work is being carried out in tandem with the excavation of a huge quarry outside the city. This water retention basin will be 30m deep and have a hydraulic storage capacity of over 500m3 – equivalent to almost 200 Olympic swimming pools.

“We have this large tank that collects all the run-off from the entire basin and fills the quarry. So, once the [rainfall] event is over, we have this volume of water that we pump out very gradually back into the natural environment,” Jean-Luc Nuel, of the Flood Prevention Department for the Nîmes Metropolitan Area, told France 2.

‘Visual pollution’ fines anger businesses

Some owners at a business park in Saint-Germain-Laprade (Haute-Loire) are furious at a new tax on advertising billboards, which could bring up to €100,000 into the mairie’s coffers. 

Some 43 businesses displaying at least 12m² of advertising are affected by the TLPE (local tax on outdoor advertising) which comes into effect on January 1. The mairie said the aim was to reduce “visual pollution” and improve quality of life.

For some companies, the bill could rise to as much as €14,000.

“Everything was done on the sly,” Jean-Christophe Pestre, head of Velay Assainissement, told local newspaper L’Éveil de la Haute-Loire. 

“People came into our store to photograph our signs without warning, and then we received a letter telling us how much we had to pay. No warning, no information. What’s more, a specialist firm was hired to do this, at a cost of €14,000. What shocks us most of all is the total lack of dialogue, communication or explanation.”

The mayor of Saint-Germain-Laprade, Guy Chapelle, said that “communication via Illiwap and on the municipality’s website was indeed provided.”