Lord Greenway (CB)

My Lords, following on from the noble Lord who has just spoken, it is my understanding that the new ferry on the Isle of Wight service which he mentioned has considerable battery capacity. During her voyages, those batteries can be charged, allowing her to operate without shore power when she is in port. She is an advanced ship, one of the first in this country. The noble Lord has very well covered the Isle of Wight scene. Given the Government’s slavish following of the EU, I find it strange that the EU can derogate ferry services to islands until 2030 but we are not doing the same. Why not? It would save a lot of the problems we are discussing today. It would also give ferry companies more time to invest more in decarbonising their vessels. I am not going to mention Northern Ireland, because I think that it has been covered very well. I would just like to say a few words about the emissions trading scheme, which seems rather a vague thing. Nobody ever mentions it; we do not hear anything about it. I only learned yesterday that there have been some problems with it—some malpractices, one might say. I do not know whether the Minister is aware of that, but it is something that we should take into consideration. Traditionally, maritime regulation has come from the International Maritime Organization, based across the river. People think that shipping has not taken much notice of reducing emissions, but huge strides have been made and millions, in fact billions, of pounds have been spent. The main container operators are hedging their bets because there is no silver bullet to replace the internal combustion engine, so they are producing hybrid vessels that can run on normal diesel fuel, liquefied natural gas or methanol. Companies are also looking at ammonia. In the smaller fields, especially Norway, which has been very advanced in this area, there are electric ferries and hydrogen ferries. In order to cut down their emissions, the shipping companies are looking at all ways of reducing fuel use, even going back to wind—modern computerised sails, 100 feet high, can help to reduce fuel costs considerably with the right conditions. Likewise—this is the only mention of Northern Ireland that I will make—somebody might have noticed a ship with something that looks like an old-fashioned factory chimney sticking up in the air. A German invention of the 1920s called the Flettner rotor has been resurrected. It is a rotating cylinder that has high pressure on one side and low pressure on the other and produces force to drive something. Bulk carriers up to 400,000 tonnes can have five of these things. At over 100 feet high, they can fold down when the vessel is working in port. They are coming into increasing use. The maritime industry has not been standing still. I heartily agree with the comments that the funds—call it a tax, if you like—gained from this system should be ploughed back into the industry and not disappear into the maws of the Treasury. As regards shore power, which the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, mentioned, we certainly have three ports that have it—Aberdeen, Portsmouth and Southampton—and the Government have been assisting with the UK SHORE unit, which has considerable funds available. A scheme has been put into operation in Portsmouth. The Government put in £20 million and I think that the local authority put in another £5 million. What happened? The two French ferries that use the port will not use it. Why? Because the cost of electricity is too high in this country. If that is not shooting yourself in the foot, I do not know what is. Certainly, there are many other ports looking into this. Take Dover-Calais, one of the major ferry routes in this country. Calais has already committed to funding three berths by 2030 and Dover is looking to form a partnership to try to do something similar. But I think Dover, as a trust port, has a problem in that it has to have an Act of Parliament to be able to deal with electricity. Cruise ships have been mentioned. There are two berths in Southampton, but only one can be used at a time because of lack of capacity in the grid. The real problem, as I see it, is that we have to increase capacity in the grid. The Minister might be able to tell us that some things are beginning to take place, but I would have thought that, before investing billions in offshore wind, it would have been more sensible to have upgraded the grid, which would have avoided a lot of these problems. This could well be the last time that I address your Lordships, as I shall be leaving shortly, so I would like to add my regret on another matter. I have been talking on maritime matters for over 50 years in this House. When I came in, we had a very sizeable merchant fleet and a sizeable Navy. What do we have today? In terms of trading vessels, we are number 31 or 32 in the world. That is a great regret and an utter disgrace.