Page 13 - European Energy Innovation - autumn 2019 publication

Autumn 2019 European Energy Innovation
environment, energy and trade, will
be taken by the Commission in the
forthcoming years.
However, the agenda of the
President-elect already clearly shows
the direction the Commission will
be taking and it must not come as a
surprise that reaching “a European
green deal” comes as a first of six
headline ambitions of Mrs von der
Leyen. Her ambition in that field is
high: the President-elect wants a
proposal within the first 100 days of
office and wants to enshrine the 2050
climate-neutrality target into hard
law. Europe must become the first
climate-neutral continent and should
even move towards zero-pollution.
The European elections are for
policy organisations like the European
Sea Ports Organisation an ideal
moment to reflect and set priorities
both for ourselves as well as for the
incoming European policymakers.
We have been running this exercise
over the last months and the result is
a memorandum we presented during
our annual conference in Livorno on
23 May. The document is more than
just a shopping list of what Europe
needs to do or not for European
ports. We want to explain new policy
makers how European ports can
be a strategic partner in achieving
Europe’s goals, in particular in terms
of digitalisation and decarbonisation.
In the first place, we want policy
makers to understand the complex
role of ports as entry gates for
trade, being at the crossroads of
supply chains, hotspots of energy,
industry, innovation and digitalisation. strategy of the port as well as
Moreover, we want to emphasize
that more than ever before, ports in
Europe are “hybrid”.
Over the last decades, encouraged
by the EU, almost all ports have
developed their governance model
towards being more commercially
driven and being more financially
autonomous. At the same time, port
managing bodies are increasingly
taking up – or are asked to take
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
13
EUROPEAN PORTS
up – wider societal responsibilities.
They need, amongst others, to
invest in projects that serve wider
environmental imperatives, even
if there is no direct return on
investment for the port and even if
the port itself is not responsible for
the environmental problems. Port
managing bodies understand these
responsibilities and are happy to
engage. I would even say that this
engagement has never before been
so strong. However, they ask policy
makers to understand the difficulty
for port managing bodies in Europe to
try to be competitive and commercial
as any other European company on
the one hand and to serve the wider
societal responsibilities like a public to be assessed in the light of the
entity on the other.
With this in mind, the memorandum
outlines a series of priorities and
recommendations for the next
five years. Let me highlight those
that touch on climate, energy and
environment more in general.
Decarbonisation comes of course
first on this list. Ports are directly
feeling the impact of extreme
weather conditions; on average 40%
of the commodities going through
European ports are sources of
energy. As ports are at the crossroad
of transport and supply chains,
clustering industry and energy, they
are of the place where lots of CO2
sources come together.
European ports therefore ask
policymakers to support investments
that implement the decarbonisation
investments aiming at enhancing
the resilience of the port to climate
change.
We further want policymakers to
recognise that ports can really
be a spider in the web for guiding
Europe’s economy through the
energy transition. We also hope that
the target for shipping set by the
International Maritime Organisation
(IMO) in 2018 will be followed up
as soon as possible by concrete
emission reduction measures for
shipping.
We furthermore underline that
investments to be made on the
port side to support the transition
to cleaner fuels are time and cost
intensive. Measures requiring ports
to invest in certain facilities should
come with corresponding obligations
for the users. We believe however
that stimulating new technologies
should not lead to strict legislation
hampering the sector to adapt to
the ongoing technological innovation.
Finally, we are conscious that our
decarbonisation targets might need
outcome of the discussion on the EU
2050 long term strategy for a climate
neutral economy. The “von der Leyen
agenda” shows a lot of ambition in
that regard.
A second important priority in the
field of environment is air pollution.
ESPO’s environmental reports (see
graph) have shown that over the last
four years air quality has been the
number one environmental priority
for Europe’s port managing bodies.
91% of European ports are urban or
close to an urban area. Air pollution
is the single largest environmental
health risk in Europe causing around
400 000 premature deaths per
year. Ports cannot ignore the call
for cleaner air, regardless of who is
responsible.
To address this major concern and
to safeguard the public acceptance
of port activity in the years to come,
we ask a gradual but mandatory
transition plan towards cleaner fuels
for shipping. Such a plan should
deliver both on air quality and carbon
savings. We also ask European policy
makers to start the discussion on
an EU wide Emission Control Area
(ECA) in close cooperation with all
stakeholders. In addition, we want
the new Commission to take away
the current disadvantage for the use
of onshore power supply (OPS), by