The wind is with us

There is a temptation, amid the complexity of global shipping regulation and the slow grind of intergovernmental negotiation, to conclude that the maritime sector’s decarbonisation agenda has stalled. That temptation should be firmly resisted. The wind has not gone out of the sails of maritime decarbonisation, and those who work in wind propulsion are among the clearest proof of it.

That was the central message I brought to the Wind Propulsion Conference, hosted jointly by the International Windship Association and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in February. Speaking to an audience of