In France, the future is arriving on a barge

PARIS - As pale morning light flickered across the Seine, Capt. Freddy Badar steered his hulking river barge, Le Bosphore, past picturesque Normandy villages and snow-fringed woodlands, setting a course for Paris.

Onboard were containers packed with furniture, electronics and clothing loaded the night before from a cargo ship that had docked in Le Havre, the seaport in northern France. Had the cargo continued by road, 120 trucks would have clogged the highways. Using Le Bosphore and its crew of four prevented tons of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere.

"The river is part of a wider solution for cleaner transport and the environment," Badar said, his eyes scanning other vessels carrying wares up and down the Seine. "But there's much more that we could be doing."

As the European Union steps up its battle against climate change, it...