Agri-business giant Cargill aims to fit sails to container ships to cut emissions     

Container ship Samskip Endeavour offloading her cargo at Tivoli Docks in Cork city.  Picture: David Creedon / Anzenberger

Cargill, one of the world’s biggest charterers of ships, is working with tech firms to fit sails on vessels in its fleet to cut carbon emissions through harnessing wind power, the US agribusiness group has said. 

About 90% of world trade is transported by sea and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has said it aims to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions from ships by 50% from 2008 levels by 2050.