It concluded that European ports had \u20ac48 billion investment needs for the period 2018-2028, with almost 4 out of 10 projects related to basic infrastructure (expansion of port basins, quays or terminals). Less than 10% of the projects were investments in infrastructure or services for the sustainable the transition of ports and shipping.<\/p>\n
But since then, the world has been changing radically: The climate crisis and related Green Deal ambitions, Covid, the Russian invasion in Ukraine. All these developments have a major impact on ports.<\/p>\n
Ports are in transition. From being mere multimodal hubs in the supply chain linking the sea with the hinterland, they are developing into hubs of sustainable energies and clusters of industry and circular economy.<\/p>\n
On top of that, throughout the different crises Europe and the world are going through, ports have become important pillars of geo-political and geo-economic resilience. As such, they have becomecrucial in enhancing Europe\u2019s energy independence and military preparedness. These new functions of ports come on top of their traditional roles.<\/p>\n
So, what does that mean in terms of investments?<\/p>\n
To find out, ESPO commissioned an update of the study of 2018.<\/p>\n
Investment needs<\/strong><\/p>\n The new study, officially presented during the ESPO Annual Conference in Paris on 26 April 2024, reveals that the total investment needs of European ports amount to \u20ac80 billion for the next 10 years (until 2034).<\/p>\n It also shows that investments in sustainability and energy transition are becoming the second most important investment category for port managing bodies. Basic infrastructure remains the most important category, but its share in the total is declining. Likewise, expected growth of volumes remains the most import driver, but it\u2019s directly followed by decarbonisation.<\/p>\n Moreover, the survey shows that 85% of the projects have a positive environmental impact. This might imply that not only are the projects specifically aimed at the green and energy transition, but that the green and energy transition requires investments in other categories such as basic infrastructure.<\/p>\n Let us in that respect refer to another finding of the study. While the container segment continues to be an important segment for port expansion, quite a lot of expansion projects in ports, in particular in comprehensive TEN-T ports, relate to breakbulk and general cargo. Wind turbines are being considered as breakbulk, this might explain the sudden expansion needs of breakbulk infrastructure and terminals.<\/p>\n Looking at the different types of investments planed, 0% of port managing bodies have plans to invest in the provision of shoreside electricity, which is of course quite normal given the binding targets for deployment of OPS in ports, foreseen in the new European Regulation, the so-called \u201cAFIR\u201d. But the study also reveals that one third of ports which provided data envisage investments in the production and use of clean energy in the port complex.<\/p>\n What lessons do we learn from this study? The \u20ac80 billion is a huge investment need. Not only in terms of overall budget needs, but it will be much more difficult to gather the necessary funding. Many investments in the green and energy transition are more risky, often without sufficient direct return on investment.<\/p>\n European elections are marking the start of a new Commission and Parliament. The new geopolitical and geo-economic context obliges Europe to prioritise resilience and competitiveness, while maintaining the green ambitions. Heads of State are discussing the need for defence budgets.<\/p>\n It will not be easy to ask for robust funding support for ports, not if policy makers look to ports in their traditional role. It will however be our role to explain the multidimensional and strategic role of Europe\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n We must be clear: Ports are no more these mere nodes in the maritime supply chain. Without ports it is impossible to secure energy, realise the green transition, safeguard cohesion, have sustainable and competitive agriculture, or remain attractive for industry, in particular the new net-zero industries, or have strong military capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2018, we commissioned an extensive study looking into the investment needs and financing challenges of European Ports, writes Isabelle Ryckbost, secretary general,\u00a0European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) and Dr Peter de Langen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,1376,74],"tags":[670,176,177,497,327,526,509,1497,1284],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-4189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-greenport","category-greenport-exclusive","category-insight-opinion-greenport","tag-energy-transition","tag-espo","tag-european-ports","tag-european-sea-ports-organisation","tag-infrastructure","tag-investment","tag-isabelle-ryckbost","tag-survey","tag-white-paper"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4189\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4189"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=4189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}