Back to the Future: Swedish Firm Bets on Wind-Powered Cargo Ships Two centuries after the first coal-powered steamships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a Swedish company is designing a futuristic throwback: a huge, wind-driven cargo ship that could help end the fossil fuel era and limit climate change. Shipping accounted for 2.9% of man-made greenhouse gas in 2018, and the industry’s share of planet-heating emissions has been rising in recent years, according to the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization. One solution may be to turn the clock back to pre-industrial times and again hoist sails to carry cargo around the world.