Air quality is once again the top priority for Europe’s ports, according to ESPO which presented findings from its latest environmental report at the GreenPort Congress in Oslo.
The ESPO Environmental Report 2019 includes more than 60 different environmental performance benchmarks including figures on the green services to shipping and the top ten environmental priorities for European ports.
Air quality continues as the top environmental priority, not least because it is important to the public acceptance of port activity. Energy consumption follows with climate change, first included in the top ten priorities two years ago, as the third focus.
Almost eight out of ten European ports take climate change into consideration when they develop new infrastructure projects. Furthermore, 62% of ports strengthen the climate resilience of existing infrastructure and 47% of them have already dealt with operational challenges due to climate change.
The relationship with the local community is in position five this year, whilst transparency is clearly a high priority with 87% of ports communicating their environmental policy to the stakeholders and 82% of them making it publicly available on their website.
With regard to green services to shipping, more than half of the ports are offering shore-side electricity for ships at berth, 48% of them providing high voltage electricity for seagoing vessels and one third has made LNG bunkering available.
In addition, 71% of the ports are certified with an environmental standard, an increase of 17% since 201 and 82% of ports have set up an environmental monitoring program with waste being the most monitored issue.
