US and Japan team up for greener shipping

Memorandums of understanding, signed during the 2023 California Japan Clean Energy Trade Mission, will create green shipping corridors between the US and the Port of Tokyo and Port of Yokohama.

“Global cooperation is critical if we are to make meaningful progress toward a cleaner and more sustainable maritime industry,” said Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka.

“We can do so much more with ports and other international stakeholders working together,” he added.

Greener shipping

In 2021, leaders from the QUAD, a strategic alliance that includes Japan, the United States, Australia and India, agreed to collaborate on a green shipping network.

These latest MoUs will foster best practice sharing on issues such as supply chain digitalisation; the testing and deployment of zero-emission vehicles, cargo handling equipment and vessels; energy use and alternative energy sources; and pollution-reduction technologies for terminals, ocean-going vessels and drayage trucks.

The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Yokohama have a long history of cooperation, dating back to a trade agreement signed in 1969 to strengthen trade routes between the two ports. The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Tokyo formalised a sister port relationship in 1987.