A big challenge for the shipping industry
Porta in united Kingdom can play a major role in reducing carbon emissions despite the fact that they are one of the least polluting links in the maritime supply chain.
University of Hull has conducted a new study which found that port companies could be drivers of change in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the industry’s supply chains.
The study, presented at the Low Carbon Shipping 2011 International Conference in Glasgow last week, looked at the environmental actions taking place in UK ports and compared them with initiatives abroad. Researchers mapped the activity of 72 UK port locations and compared these Activities with those carried out by leading ports overseas.
The findings revealed that carbon emissions from ports and port-related activity are small compared with emissions from ships and the haulage companies that serve them.
According to the study’s preliminary results, in 2008, the added emissions from five large UK ports groups represented a small percentage of those generated by the ships calling at these same ports: 174,000 tonnes from port operations and approximately 10m tonnes from international shipping.
In 2007, international shipping accounted for 870m tonnes of carbon, or 2.7% of global emissions, whereas international aviation accounted for 1.9%, according to International Maritime Organization statistics cited by the new report.
The current work forms part of a wide ranging Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and industry-funded project entitled Low Carbon Shipping-A Systems Approach, which aims to find ways of reducing the industry’s carbon Footprint.
Researchers from Hull University Business School focused first on ports’ carbon footprints and environmental management systems. They believe that ports are already doing many things that are good, such as improving the energy efficiency of their handling operations and developing renewable energy sources. But where ports work collectively, they can not only reduce emissions from their own activities, but also encourage shipping companies and other elements in the supply chain to do the same.
There is also scope to reduce carbon emissions in the maritime industry by between 25% and 75%, using a range of technical and operational measures.
Researchers looked at the concept of green passports-currently available in a handful of North European ports-which offer reduced port fees for vessels meeting specified environmental requirements for emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Cold ironing in which ships at berth plug into port electricity from the grid rather than power up from their engines, and truck booking systems such as those in place on the US West Coast,were also examined.
The researchers were particularly interested in the carbon impact of supply chains in a globalised economy. Ports have long been ignored in this context so we were very keen to do that. Initiatives such as the World Ports Climate Initiative have shown that ports can be very proactive in this area and there is a good track record of shipping companies working in partnership with the port operators to improve environmental standards, given the right incentives.
According to the researchers, the agreements would have to be adopted at a Europe-wide level in order to be effective. The UK must carefully on taking unilateral decisions, since the ports industry has proved to be a competitive market.