Royal Navy aiming to be 'one of the world's greenest fleets' in the world with raft of new measures

The Royal Navy has launched a raft of measures to make it a more environmentally friendly service – including a new lick of paint for some of its vessels.

Eight new Type 26 frigates will be painted with environmentally friendly, anti-fouling paint to limit marine growth, complementing a a hydrodynamic redesign to add speed without the need for larger engines.

It comes as the navy opens a £7m aircraft carrier logistics hubs in the Portsmouth Naval Base as the first ‘net zero’ carbon building in the navy, meeting its energy needs entirely from solar power.

New patrol ships HMS Tamar and Spey, which are on long-term deployments to the Indo-Pacific, have been fitted with catalytic reduction systems to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, while icebreaker HMS Protector continues to supports international research into wildlife and climate change in Antarctica.

Portsmouth Naval Base has won three environmental awards already – but the navy will not rest on its laurels, according to the base’s commanding officer, Commodore John Voyce.

He said: ‘Portsmouth Naval Base has established many low-carbon initiatives in order to achieve our target of being carbon-neutral.

‘This includes electric vehicles and charging points, installation of wind turbines, and of course the construction and opening of our first carbon-neutral building in June this year – the first Royal Navy infrastructure construction to be Net Zero in operation.

‘I am delighted to support and contribute to the government’s carbon reduction goals, and Team Portsmouth will continue to work on many more exciting actions to further improve our carbon footprint, not just for the Royal Navy and our base, but for the future of the city of Portsmouth as well.’

Meanwhile, at HMS Collingwood in Fareham, £2.4m has been invested in new systems to monitor and control energy usage.

From next year ships will be recognised if they meet sustainability standards under what will be known as the Green Pennant scheme, alongside the navy’s existing training schemes for crew.