The European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP) has welcomed the direction and actions of the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy for Europe, as they believe it recognizes the important role of inland ports as “Enablers of Green Logistics”.
EU unveiled its long-awaited strategy on 9 December, outlining the planned actions that will realise the EU Green Deal goals of reducing emissions by at least 50% by 2030 and reaching carbon-neutrality by 2050 within the field of transport.
In this context, EFIP believes that inland ports’ role as multimodal hubs brings together low-emissions modes of transport promoting smart city logistics solutions that are key in the transition to smart and sustainable mobility.
The recognition of the role of inland ports in achieving the European Green Deal is very welcome as we are working hard to contribute to decarbonizing transport. By supporting the modal shift, syncromodality, alternative fuels and urban logistics, I believe we can start working on realizing green logistics in order to achieve a carbon-neutral European economy by 2050,
…EFIP President Friedrich Lehr commented.
Central in the Strategy is the decarbonization of all modes of transport. In this, the Commission recognizes the potential of ports to be energy hubs and the uptake of clean vessels, EFIP notes.
The proposed revision of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive and Energy Taxation Directive will be essential in achieving this.
Meanwhile, inland ports stressed they will not be able to undertake developments such as renewable and low carbon refueling infrastructure. Therefore, support from the promised funding initiatives will be crucial.
In addition, they welcomed the actions proposed to realize the polluter pays principle in order to reach a level playing field between all the modes, as well as the proposed initiatives on sustainable urban logistics.
EFIP and its members have been pushing new innovations to support clean logistics in their cities and regions and expect a prominent role to be given to inland ports in the proposed Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans. The expanded usage of inland waterways in cities shows considerable potential in this regard,
…EFIP concluded.
