Thanks to shipping freight rates climbing to new highs every week, hardly anyone has been talking about the environmental impact of cargo shipping of late. The topic was, however, very much a part of drawing-room discussions before the coronavirus turned the world upside down.

The same company that has been giving us commercial aircrafts for decades is now offering a solution to cut fuel costs and CO₂ emissions (by 20%) in cargo shipping – Airseas by Airbus is now offering a giant (and we mean GIANT) parafoil that is said to tow cargo ships. Without going into much detail, the parafoil is attached to the front of the watercraft and works on a concept called “wind propulsion”, which basically means that the parafoil uses the energy produced by the wind to propel the ship.

Seems like a simple-enough solution to a huge problem, doesn’t it?