ESPO attends Port Climate Workshop in Copenhagen

Whilst top politicians from all corners of the globe are gathering in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, various industry side-events are being organised in the Danish capital. Following an initiative of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) a special session on Ports, Goods Movement and Supply Chains was held on 15 December.
The Chairman of ESPO’s Sustainable Development Committee, Ms. Gun Rudeberg (photo) attended the workshop and presented ESPO’s perspective on combating Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. “Whilst the direct impact of port operations on GHG emissions is relatively small, port authorities can contribute in a pro-active manner to a cleaner supply chain”, said Ms. Rudeberg, “One of the major opportunities to reduce CO2 is increased co-modality which we can encourage in co-operation with shipowners, terminal operators, actors in the wider logistics chain and other stakeholders.”
ESPO also underlines the need to avoid one-size-fits-all solutions. What works in one port may not work in another. Solutions like shore power for instance, have to be assessed for each individual port and cannot be universally applied. “This is why co-operation projects such as those developed under the umbrella of the World Port Climate Initiative (WPCI) are very useful” concluded Ms. Rudeberg “They allow ports to exchange technical know-how and best practice.”

Other participants to the workshop were Geraldine Knatz, Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles and WPCI Chairman and Clint Eishauer, Vice-President of Maersk.
The Copenhagen Climate Conference will end this week and is expected to find a political agreement on GHG reduction targets in succession to the Kyoto Protocol. As far as shipping and ports are concerned, the next major event is the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of IMO which will gather in March next year to discuss development of technical and operational measures to reduce ship emissions and market-based instruments to provide incentives to the shipping industry.

(Source: www.transportweekly.com)