HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - With its new flagship, the new mega-freighter "Berlin Express", Hamburg-based shipping line Hapag-Lloyd is setting course for more climate-friendly shipping. Although the ship can also run on conventional fuel, it currently runs on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which emits around a quarter less CO2. The "dual-fuel" engine is thus also suitable for non-fossil and thus climate-neutral fuels such as bio-methane or e-methane. On Monday, the 400-meter-long and 61-meter-wide ship was officially inducted into Hapag-Lloyd's fleet in its home port of Hamburg. The godmother of the festive naming ceremony was Germany's First Lady Elke Büdenbender, wife of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

With a capacity of 23,664 20-foot standard containers (TEU), the South Korean-built ship is the largest freighter ever to sail under the German flag. Even the world's largest container ships have only a few hundred TEU more capacity. With the freighters of the internally named "Hamburg Express" ship class, the world's fifth-largest container shipping company is advancing into new dimensions: Hapag-Lloyd's fleet of 258 ships has not previously included such large vessels. The "Berlin Express" has been operating in liner service between the Chinese port of Ningbo and Hamburg since August.

"The new Hamburg Express class marks a turning point for Hapag-Lloyd," said the shipping line's chief executive, Rolf Habben Jansen. "With the highly efficient ships, emissions can be reduced immediately and very significantly. At the same time, they are an important building block in our strategy to drive decarbonization step by step."

Members of the World Shipping Organization (IMO) had agreed in July, after lengthy deliberations, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 or shortly thereafter. Interim targets for 2030 and 2040 are intended to pave the way for this. Hapag-Lloyd itself has set itself the goal of operating its entire fleet in a climate-neutral manner as early as 2045.

However, climate-friendly shipping is still a long way off. Today, shipping is responsible for around three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions - more than the whole of Germany. At the same time, it forms the backbone of global trade: around 90 percent of the flow of goods is handled by ship. Even today, container ships mostly run on heavy oil or marine diesel, and very few also run on LNG, such as the "Berlin Express". Because it is possible to switch to climate-neutral methane without any problems, Hapag-Lloyd refers to its new LNG ships as a bridging technology./kf/DP/men