The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) presented its ESPO Annual ESPO Environmental Report 2022 – EcoPortInsights, reports Safety4sea. The report concludes that climate change is top priority for European ports.
Top 10 port priorities
The ESPO Environmental Report 2022 contains a number of positive trends amongst key indicators. For the first time since the start of monitoring, climate change has become the top environmental priority of ports.
This underscores the value of the Environmental Report reporting on environmental performance of the sector. It provides ESPO and European policymakers with insights on the environmental issues that European ports are facing.
Furthermore, in 2022, the report finds that ports continue to improve their environmental management, addressing their top priorities to a greater degree than in the past.
Namely, the Environmental Management Index, which provides a rating of environmental management in European ports continues its positive trajectory. With a score of 7,98 in 2022, surveyed ports are approaching the peak levels seen in 2017-2018, and have almost delivered on the ambition set out in the ESPO Green Guide 2021 for ports to achieve an EMI score of 8 by 2025.
In fact, a growing share of ports are also getting certified with PERS, the only port-specific environmental standard on the market developed by ports, for ports. In 2022, close to half of surveyed ports (44,9%) are PERS-certified, making PERS one of the most popular standards in the sector next to ISO 14001.
Some key indicators such as environmental training programmes for port employees and monitoring of air quality saw slight downturns compared to last year, and will be followed up by ESPO ahead of next year’s report.
The Top 10 priorities include the following:
- Climate change
- Air quality
- Energy efficiency
- Noise
- Water quality
- Relationship with the local community
- Ship waste
- Garbage/ Port waste
- Port development (land related)
- Dredging operations
Green services to shipping
The provision of green services to shipping show the efforts made by ports to enable greener shipping, and provides ports with opportunities to address their Top 10 environmental priorities. The ESPO Environmental Reports monitor three key green services:
- The provision of Onshore Power Supply (OPS)
- The provision of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering facilities
- The provision of environmentally differentiated port fees, which reward ships that go beyond regulatory standards for greening
The findings in the report show a clear commitment from ports to deploy OPS in the coming two years. In 2022, close to half (48%) of surveyed ports are planning to deploy OPS in the near future, which is more than double the share of ports planning to do so in 2018.
With the continuation of the positive trend in ports planning to deploy OPS, we could expect OPS to be widely available in most ports where it is relevant in the coming years.
When combining the 55% of surveyed ports that provide OPS and the 48% that are planning to offer it in the coming years, ESPO concludes that respondent ports have the willingness to promote the use and potential deployment of OPS.
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Source: Safety4sea
