EXCLUSIVE: The green transition forces more cooperation

When I started in this job in ESPO in 2013, I met European port managers and port professionals who were very competitive, counting tonnes and throughput and trying to be more attractive than the neighbouring port or the competing port serving the same hinterland or markets.

During the last ten years, ports have moved further in the direction of corporatisation and of becoming commercial companies paying taxes, similar to any other company.

Tonnes still play an important role, but, on top of becoming more “commercial”, the public responsibilities and roles of ports are also on the rise. As mission-driven entities, Europe’s ports remain engaged in goals of general interest, contributing to the ambitions Europe is putting forward – decarbonisation and the energy transition being by far the most important ones.

And there we see an interesting development where ports are joining forces among themselves and with other stakeholders.

Keeping up

The energy transition obliges ports to look for innovative solutions and new ways of working, in the first place, to green their own operations and lower their own carbon footprint.

Since moving forward often requires making risky choices, as there is not just one way forward, not one type of port, and the way forward is uncertain, ports have to learn, exchange good practices and compare with peers.

It is in that respect that we see more and more ports seeking platforms to reflect together on the way forward, to exchange good practices and learn from each other.

Even if ESPO has a long standing tradition in working together to assist its members in excelling further in environmental management and performance in the framework of the EcoPorts network, we see that over the last years the interest to be part of such a network is growing. For the first time, almost 40 European ports are being certified under the Port Environmental Review System, the PERS certificate.

In addition, we see many ports participating in EU projects, building consortia to reflect on how to green and how to realise the green transition. Under the European research programme Horizon Horizon Europe, two big consortia have been set up aimed at developing a Masterplan for European Green Ports.

One concerns the Pioneers project, coordinated by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and bringing together also the ports of Barcelona, Constanta and Venlo with a wide variety of energy stakeholders, universities and consultants.

The other, the Magpie project, gathers an equally wide group of partners together with the ports HAROPA Port, Sines and Deltaport. But next to these two mega projects, there are also different other EU projects aimed at paving the way towards zero-emission ports, such as the SEANERGY project, …

But the cooperation is going also much further than exchanging good practices.

Green corridors

Different ports in Europe are currently engaging in building Green Corridors, together with shipping lines and cargo owners.

For ports being part of a network industry, the development of bottom-up green corridors seem a logical step in making sure that the greening effort is shared by all stakeholders on the corridor. In that sense, North Sea Port, Port of Antwerp-Bruges and Port of Gothenburg are together with DFDS committing to the establishment of the Sweden-Belgium Green Corridor.

In their efforts to step up their role as hubs of energy and being partner in the energy transition, the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge decided to merge a few years ago into the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.

Finally, and this is maybe the most striking fact, we see that the big competing ports are no longer only focusing on who is the biggest.

As they say it themselves in an open letter that was published in April on the eve of the European Industry Summit on 17 and 18 April 2024: Nowadays, when the CEOs of Port of Antwerp-Bruges, North Sea Port, Duisburger Hafen AG and Port of Rotterdam sit around the table – “We no longer talk about tonnes of cargo, but about how we can unite to secure a sustainable future for industry in Europe.”

Let me conclude. It is clear that the energy transition obliges ports to think and work differently. Cooperation, building coalitions of the willing, becomes an essential pillar of paving the way forward, since the climate and green ambitions can only be met if we join forces.