France to increase expenditure on zero-carbon ships development

France’s secretary of state in charge of maritime affairs, Hervé Berville, has set aside €300m ($302m) under the government’s France-Mer 2030 plan to get the country closer to building zero-emissions vessels.

While only 12% of the ships used in France are built in the country, compared to 80% in 1980, Berville stressed at a conference yesterday the need to make future zero-carbon ships “as French as possible, from its keel to its fuel cell”.

At the same conference, the chairman of CMA CGM, Rodolphe Saadé, announced he would give the new France-Mer 2030 fund €200m in additional funding.

Other European nations, notably the UK and Norway, have been talking up prospects of boosting their shipbuilding roots with the coming greening of the industry.