At the GreenPort in Le Havre this week, a panel tried to answer the billion dollar question question from chairman Chris Wooldridge: can ports really hit this target?<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope so but it will be challenging,\u201d said Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General, ESPO, summing up what the panel basically agreed throughout the discussion. \u201cWe always say ports are part of the problem, but they are also part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, as FEPORT Secretary General Lamia Kerdjoudi said, ports themselves only produce 10 per cent of the pollution \u2013 the rest comes the customers who use them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAir doesn\u2019t stop at the borders of the EU,\u201d she said. \u201cEuropean ports are making a lot of effort, providing alternative fuels and so on; we want to reach the targets but we have to remain competitive and preserve employment. There is a lot of competition outside the EU and we have to be pragmatic and realistic, otherwise we will shoot ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Policy makers, said Ryckbost, were keen to tell ports that they \u2018can do this and do that\u2019 \u2013 but is there a business case?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to decarbonise while everyone is also trying to maintain their competitiveness,\u201d said Antonis Michail, Technical Director, IAPH & WPSP IAPH. \u201cI don\u2019t know how we are going to do all this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be difficult to reach the 2050 target, with the uncertainty over future fuels and so on, and that mentality takes a long time to change,\u201d said Cedric Virciglio, Strategic Planning Director, HAROPA Port, citing the example of Dunkirk, where a system had been installed 12 years ago and to date, just one vessel had connected to it.<\/p>\n
Global policy<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing it at a European level but I\u2019m not seeing it at a global level,\u201d said Ryckbost. \u201cWe have to live with this EU framework and we just have to hope that the new commission will listen more to the fact that it\u2019s not so much why, as how. Tick box regulations and reporting is not green.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s only at EU level that you have these strict measures, with the European parliament seeming to say it doesn\u2019t matter what it takes, whatever it costs.\u201d<\/p>\n The panel discussed the fact that developing countries may find strict environment regulations unfair.<\/p>\n \u201cDeveloping countries need to become developed,\u201d said Michail. \u201cBut that\u2019s a global problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to look at the economic side of it,\u201d said Ryckbost. \u201cWe have a strict framework to work in but I don\u2019t think we will ever have a global policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are a country seeking development and getting access to what the western world has had access to, it\u2019s very difficult to tell them \u2018you have to go back to environment rules and reduce consumption,\u201d said Kerdjoudj. \u201cIt\u2019s a legitimate point of view, but I think awareness will come, when people see the damage it will play a role in making policy makers decide in the court of public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to achieve these targets,\u201d said Michail. \u201cWe need a global pathway to hit the targets by 2050 at the latest.\u201d<\/p>\n