Port of Rotterdam cited a series of objectives and initiatives to achieve sustainability until 2050. The initiatives are related to Paris Agreement signing, promotion of LNG as a marine fuel, heat alliance, waste recycling, among others.
The Netherlands along with 194 other countries have agreed to jointly fight climate change, signing to the Paris Climate Agreement, and around 18% of the Dutch CO2 emissions are generated by the port of Rotterdam.
Paris Agreement and the port – facts
- To achieve limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius objective, the port has to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2. Researchers estimate that by 2050, we need to have reduced CO2 emissions by 80 to 95 percent.
- Numerous companies in Rotterdam’s port area use fossil resources to produce fuels and a wide range of chemical products. While these companies generate CO2 emissions, they also have a wealth of knowledge relating to energy and CO2 emission reduction measures. This puts Rotterdam in a strong position for becoming an international frontrunner in the development and large-scale implementation of technologies that can cut industrial emission levels to virtually zero.
- We call this development the ‘energy transition’: the move from fossil fuels to clean, ‘green’ sources of power and the optimal use and reuse of energy and raw materials. This transition is expected to be rounded off by 2050.
- The Dutch private sector fully supports the Paris climate goals. Over 60 companies, including initiators Siemens, Van Oord, Eneco, Shell and the Port of Rotterdam Authority, have called on the incoming government to draw up climate legislation that sets out how we should translate the Paris Agreement into concrete measures and establishes a long-term climate and energy policy.
Further, the port presents four projects as examples that will reduce CO2 emissions in the port area, either today or in the near future:
- Heat alliance: The port’s industrial sector generates a lot of residual heat, which is currently released in the surface water or air. After constructing an underground network of pipelines, the port will be able to supply this heat to local industry and greenhouses – as well as, potentially, some 500,000 households.
- Plastic made from sugar beets and wood: The port’s chemical factories currently use oil to produce raw materials for plastic packaging, cleaning products and cosmetics, but the use of oil will be gradually scaled back. In the near future, these products will be made from products like sugar beet, soybean meal and wood. Biochemical processes, in other words. This is already happening on a small scale in the port area.
- LNG as a marine fuel: The port of Rotterdam plays a pioneering role in the introduction of LNG (liquefied natural gas) as an alternative transport fuel. As natural gas is the premier ‘transition fuel’ en route to the zero emissions era, the Port Authority has substantially invested in a wide range of LNG facilities.
- Re-use of waste: A total of 10 parties are currently examining whether a waste-2-chemicals plant can be set up in the port of Rotterdam. This new plant would make use of technology developed in Canada. There, one can already find a facility that converts collected plastic waste into new feedstocks for the chemical industry. At present, nearly all of these feedstocks are made from petroleum. The new plant will present a sustainable alternative, in other words.
