An ambitious and radical proposal to turn the Dover Strait green and to allow only fully electric ferries on the short-sea Channel crossing will be put to the government today.
The plan is for the routes between Dover and Calais and Dunkirk to become the first zero-carbon shipping corridor in the world, with a new generation of ferries making the 22-mile crossing on battery power and the ports replacing their fuel bunkers with industrial-size ship recharging points.
If the proposal is agreed, it is likely that in time there will be a corollary mandate to demand that heavy goods and passenger vehicles using the port and ferries also will have to be lower-emission.
The three ports and P&O, DFDS and Irish Ferries, the ferry operators,
