Renault joins UECC’s Sail for Change fuel-switching initiative

UECC launched Sail for Change in June last year to decarbonise its ocean-going ro-ro vessels and offer OEM customers a way to move their vehicle volumes on vessels powered with renewable fuels. 

It is fuelling its fleet of dual and multi-fuel LNG pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) with biomethane or bioLNG. Doing that enabled UECC to cut its CO₂ emissions by more than 107,000 tonnes in 2024 and it expects this reduction to increase by 50% to nearly 155,000 tonnes this year. In June this year the company added another dual-fuel LNG PCTC to its north-south Europe trading network – Blue Heritage – along with an additional port call in Turkey at Yarímca port.

UECC already counts JLR, Toyota, Ford and one other unnamed OEM among its customers. Pilot shipments of Renault vehicles began on July 1 this year between the Belgian port of Zeebrugge and the port of Esbjerg in Denmark. UECC estimates that the service will result in an annual saving of 1,000 tonnes of Scope 3 CO₂ emissions for the leading French car maker. Scope 3 emissions are those produced indirectly by a company in the supply chain and not by its own activities. 

“It is great to see that another valued customer has decided to come onboard Sail for Change as the programme has expanded since being launched a year ago, boosting bunkering of liquefied biomethane (LBM) to generate significant emissions reductions to meet the market demand for more sustainable maritime logistics,” said UECC’s CEO Glenn Edvardsen. 

Sustainable goals

Renault Group is looking to reduce emissions from its supply chain and logistics by at least 27% by 2030. From 2025 as part of its ‘Renaulution’ strategic plan, it aims to focus its business model on technology, energy and new mobility. Renault Group wants to be a net zero company in Europe by 2040 and worldwide by 2050. 

UECC’s energy and sustainability manager, Daniel Gent, said Sail for Change provided customers such as Renault seeking to decarbonise, the opportunity to make “a direct, meaningful and certified impact on their supply chain emissions by offering marine transport powered by sustainable fuels”. 

The bioLNG that UECC is sourcing for it Sail for Change initiative is supplied by Titan Clean Fuels. UECC said this is the key fuel to achieve its target of a 45% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030 towards its goal of net zero by 2040. 

“As a front-runner in decarbonisation of shipping, UECC is in alignment with the needs of the market through low-carbon ship operations and is delivering on our long-term promise to insulate our customers from regulatory penalties under the new green regime,” Gent added. 

The FuelEU Maritime regulation, which has been fully applied since the beginning of January this year, sets maximum limits for the yearly average greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy used by ships above 5,000GT calling at European ports. The regulation encourages companies to invest in vessels running on alternative fuels and is the biggest lever for decarbonisation in the maritime sector for a generation, according to UECC. 

UECC said it has been able to avoid surcharges for its customers as its eco-friendly fleet is generating a compliance surplus under FuelEU Maritime that can be monetised through the pooling mechanism of the regulation. This surplus will be maintained as the adoption of alternative fuels increases. They are expected to account for 58% of the company’s fuel use by 2030, according to UECC.