Out of 100 World’s largest ports in terms of total cargo volume handled, 28 of them offer incentives for environmentally-friendly ships, a new report released by the International Transport Forum (ITF) shows.
Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping currently represent around 2.6% of total global emissions. Without reduction measures, this share could more than triple by 2050.
Many of these measures focus on ship design and operations. However, ports also play an important role in reducing the global carbon footprint of maritime shipping, the report says.
As informed, green incentives typically apply to less than 5% of the ships calling at a port with an incentive scheme. Only five ports use CO2 emissions a substantial criterion for incentives.
Any incentives shipowners may currently have to order more efficient ships with lower emissions can only to a very small extent be a result of savings from port-based incentives, the report finds.
The report thus recommends to acknowledge the important role of ports in mitigating shipping emissions, expand port-based incentives for low-emission ships, link port-based incentives to actual GHG emissions and move to a more harmonized application of green port fees.
“Ports clearly play a hugely important role in helping the shipping sector to manage the transition to clean shipping,” Olaf Merk, ports and shipping expert at ITF, said.
“Port-based incentives for greenhouse emission mitigation could provide an important supporting role,” he added.
Source:-Dailyshippingtimes.com
