French Port Marseille Fos said that it has joined the World Ports Climate Initiative (WPCI) and is now set to reduce port dues for ships performing better than required, under air pollution regulations. From July 1 this year, the incentive will apply to eligible ships among the 236 container carriers and cruise vessels – a 60/40% split – that call at the port. Other sectors will be added in 2018.
Marseille Fos is going to be one among the 50 ports worldwide that offer reduced call charges based on the Environmental Ship Index (ESI). Reductions will apply from a score of 35 – the level attributed to ships equipped for the so-called ‘cold ironing’ facility to take shoreside electrical power at berth instead of using onboard diesel generators.
The port was the first in France and the Mediterranean to announce such a facility, following an agreement with Corsica and Sardinia ferry operator La Meridionale. The company’s three ships have been equipped since January. For each vessel, CO2 and particle emissions have been cut by the equivalent of more than 3,000 vehicles per day on the 64km route from Marseille to Aix, while NOx emissions are down by the equivalent of 65,000 vehicles per day.
In a further green initiative, Marseille Fos has launched a website link to reinforce its cooperation with AirPACA, the air quality monitoring association for the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region. The port joined in 2004, making it the longest serving transport infrastructure member. Since 2015, it has been supplying annual maritime traffic statistics to support air quality analysis.
Logistics IT specialist Marseille Gyptis International (MGI) and the port of Marseilles Fos won gold for best Smart Port information systems to earn the highest IT category award, at the 30th conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbors held in Indonesia, in May.
