Environmental advocacy organization Stand.earth applauded U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, signed on November 15.
The bill aims to deliver $550 billion in new investment over 5 years for roads, bridges, mass transit, ports, and waterways.
Now, Stand.earth applauded the move, calling it “an unprecedented opportunity for ports to invest in infrastructure for zero-emissions maritime vessels.”
Namely, Stand.earth co-leads the Ship It Zero coalition, which is calling for major retail brands Amazon, IKEA, Target, and Walmart to reduce their climate and health-harming cargo shipping pollution by switching to zero-emissions ships by 2030.
Biden’s infrastructure bill, which includes $17 billion for modernizing ports and waterways, is a watershed moment for the health of port communities and the decarbonization of the shipping sector
said Kendra Ulrich, Shipping Campaigns Director at Stand.earth. Ms. Ulrich added that with $245 million in federal grants to be allocated in the next 45 days for updating port infrastructure, and $4 billion in port projects to be identified within the first 90 days, this is an unprecedented opportunity to invest in the zero-emissions vessel infrastructure.
We are calling on the Biden administration to focus on making good on the U.S.’s promise in Glasgow last week to build green shipping corridors, as well as renewable port electrification projects
Ms. Ulrich mentioned.
President Biden’s infrastructure package comes after two pivotal weeks for the shipping industry at COP26, the UN’s annual climate change conference.
During the climate summit, on November 10, ministers, CEOs, and governments from around the world launched the Clydebank Declaration, a collaborative effort to establish green shipping corridors among some of the globe’s busiest maritime shipping routes.
Stand.earth called it a potentially pivotal moment for the decarbonization of maritime shipping, but “only if cargo owners step up their level of ambition and send the clear market signals needed to make this initiative a reality.”
Furthermore, on November 4, retail giant Amazon joined the White House’s First Movers Coalition, a public-private partnership launched by U.S. President Joe Biden and the World Economic Forum to commercialize emerging technologies essential to decarbonizing heavy industries, including ocean shipping.