News / MSC offers customers a chance to go carbon-neutral with shipments

MSC is set to roll-out a customer carbon offsetting programme it has been trialling since last year.

Since early 2019, it has been developing its ‘MSC Carbon Neutral Programme’ with low carbon solutions provider South Pole, which will “deliver measurable benefits aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.

Under the programme, shippers and forwarders can compensate the emissions from the transport of their cargo by financially contributing to two selected projects that reduce emissions.

The carbon footprint of shipments are measured, then South Pole certifies that a corresponding amount of carbon credits from the selected two projects is permanently cancelled on behalf of MSC customers in the Verra Registry – a trusted emissions registry run by Verra, an internationally recognised, third-party verification standard.

These carbon credits are assigned serial numbers in a publicly accessible registry to ensure claims are not counted twice.

“MSC clients are given the opportunity to  contribute to projects that not only mitigate  global CO2 emissions, but also improve lives on the ground in communities in China and Zimbabwe – from the development of cleaner energy and combating poverty to improving skills and ensuring food security,” said Natalia Gorina, commercial director at South Pole.

“We congratulate MSC on this important effort to further green its fleet and for facilitating their customers to be more climate-friendly,” added chief executive Renat Heuberger. “Transformational change won’t happen overnight, but each step we take along a shared, ambitious climate journey is bringing us closer to where we need to be.”

MSC chief operating officer Claudio Bozzo said: “We have partnered with South Pole, a leading, certified third party, to extend the MSC Carbon Neutral Programme and help bridge the gap between shipping today and the zero-carbon future we all aspire to.”

The Geneva-headquartered company added that it was “actively exploring and trialling a range of alternative fuel and propulsion technologies to support the container shipping industry’s long-term goals to decarbonise”.