2015:20. ZVT. Jakob Lagercrantz, Equest. GotMoS.

Listen to the interview with Jakob Lagercrantz, Equest or read the transcript below. . –Mr Jacob Lagerkrantz, thank you for participating at this Motorways of the Sea conference. Can you please introduce yourself? . – Well, I’m coming from a slightly different angle into shipping and environment, I come from the environment angle; I used to work for Greenpeace, I’ve been working on land transport quite a lot, I was the chairman of the Swedish association of Green Motorists and I founded the 2030 secretariat. And this is where it all comes together, because the 2030 secretariat works on how Sweden can have a fossil free transport sector by 2030. And luckily enough, the shipping industry is coming into that work in Sweden – finally, I’ve been waiting for it since there is so much potential. . – Thank you. Please give a short resume from your panel discussions. . – Oh, I had the privilege to moderate five fantastic projects with LNG; ship owners and Scangas and then, in the end the classification societies and Chalmers and SSPA. And it was fantastic to hear, different projects with different experiences all being early movers, going beyond legislation, and gaining similar experiences from different aspects. And they show what should happen in society, with the help of external funding from the EU Commission in this case and I’m just so proud of having been standing in front of them, because what they’ve done is amazing. In spite of a petroleum price that has gone through the rock bottom, really really bad, in spite of that, they’ve done it. . – Yes, it’s impressive. . – It is very impressive. I’m so glad to have met them. . – What are the success factors enabling us to take the technical leap? . – It’s … I’m going to answer in a different way. I think the success factors are Lars and Henrik and Anders and all the pre-names of the persons, the flesh and blood behind these companies, because a project is not a project unless somebody’s there to actually push it, and a project like this with petroleum prices going down where you have to invest so much extra, it’s nothing, so you have to have the people there ready to say, “well, fuck it, we’re going to do it anyway because we need to be, we want to be the first movers, we want to catch the market, we believe in sustainable development that is necessary for the future.” Then, these people are getting to know each other and I think we noticed in the discussion where you have the longest value chain, you have the production, you have the fuel, you have the customer, the customer’s customer. That’s when you really have a safe and strong chain of value for the future that can take any kind of attack from the outside, for instance that the price of petroleum goes down. . – So it’s about collaboration and human beings. . – Yeah, human beings, flesh and blood, it’s the people. It came up in the debate what could be the focus in the future, and it’s the training, the staff, the merchants and sailors onboard training the engineers in the engine room, training them to understand the new technology, using the new technology and the advantages of that so the next step will be: bring in the people. We have the technological development, bring in the people in the engine room, bring in the customer so they can be ambassadors to the market. And in the final, in the end, that me as a customer buying a computer that could travel by ship I would pay maybe a couple of hundred kronas extra because I get a certified transport with less emissions. . – When it comes to the financial mechanisms, and to the 2030 agenda, could you give your view on what needs to be done within the shipping industry? . – I made a mistake today in calling the European Investment Bank the Environmental Investment Bank, but maybe that was a Freudian slip, because the European Investment Bank is looking for projects within sustainable development, where they can show the Commission that they’re actually putting money, risk money, into sustainable development. So maybe it’s not so wrong to call it the Environmental Investment Bank, where they put in the risk where a ship owner is putting extra money into a ship they don’t know if the customers will accept. They can’t get money from the bank because the bank doesn’t believe they have secure charters enough, maybe only two or two plus two years, and the bank demands five years. That’s where the EIB, Environmental Investment Bank, could play an important role and put in that risk money. . – Thank you. To learn from other transport modes, what do you think is the primary issue, if any, that shipping as a transport mode should look further into? . – Well, I think that today, shipping has not received the same support as the other transport modes, and that is the most important thing: that all transport modes should carry their own costs. If that happens, then shipping will get a boost because the motorways of the sea are already laid, they’re already existing, so we don’t need an investment, we’re not going to have any cost there. The ports are in shape, they are ready to receive more ships, so I think the most important part for the shipping is to see itself as a very important part for Sweden to reach the 2030 target. And shipping should take a larger role, it’s not competition to other transport modes because we have congestion on the roads, we need to do something, and shipping could be a saving angel. . – So shipping can be a part together with railway and aviation? . – Absolutely. Maybe, aviation is something that we should bring down a bit, but land transport, road transport and railroad, and then aviation only when something needs to go really quick, but it’s the less energy-efficient way of transport, the opposite to shipping in a way. . – Thank you very much! – Thank you!