Shipping firm Maersk spends £1bn on ‘carbon neutral’ container ships

Eight new vessels able to run on methanol fuel could help save more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions a year

The world's biggest shipping company is investing $1.4bn (1bn) to speed up its switch to carbon neutral operations, ordering eight container vessels that can be fuelled by green methanol as well as traditional bunker fuel .

The Danish shipping business Maersk said the investment in new vessels would help to ship goods from companies including H&M Group and Unilever, while saving more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions a year by replacing older fossil fuel-driven ships.