Climate top priority for ports

Launched at GreenPort Congress and Cruise currently underway at Bruges in Belgium, the ESPO Annual ESPO Environmental Report 2022 – EcoPortInsights is based on responses from 92 ports from 20 countries across Europe.

For the first time since the start of monitoring, climate change has become the top environmental priority of ports, which ESPO says underscores the value monitoring has on performance in this area. The other top ten priorities remain mostly unchanged, with air quality and energy efficiency joining climate change in the top three of port priorities.

The report finds that ports are continuing to improve their environmental management, addressing their top priorities to a greater degree than in the past. A growing share are also getting certified with PERS, the only port-specific environmental standard on the market.

Some key indicators such as environmental training programmes for port employees and monitoring of air quality saw slight downturns compared to last year, and will be followed up by ESPO ahead of next year’s report.

Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO Secretary General said that ports are facing unprecedented challenges. “These challenges come on top of long-term efforts to move towards a more sustainable future in the maritime sector, with ports seeking to do their part in the decarbonisation of Europe,” she said.

“It is reassuring to see that the challenging period we are going through is not holding back ports to continue to engage towards their environmental goals and strategy.”