The port industry faces challenges posed by new technologies such as terminal automation, autonomous ships, cyber security, etc. However, in the long run, global warming should be a bigger challenge to the industry, as we are required to contribute to the Paris Agreement’s central aim of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
To make the Paris Agreement a reality by stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and reducing them by 60 percent by 2050, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is discussing an initial strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships. To assist the IMO in these efforts, we will participate in the development of a comprehensive global strategy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime sector.
We have recently co-sponsored a submission to IMO, calling for a qualified global emissions plan for international shipping to lay down the level of ambition of the initial IMO strategy, pending agreement in 2018. Its objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and decrease toward emissions zero in the second half of the century. The efforts of ports to reduce gas emissions should be counted as part of a national contribution as defined in the Paris Agreement. However, because ports accommodate oceangoing ships, I believe the port industry needs to show it can give credible figures and a convincing story about its carbon footprint as an industry.
This topic is very much on the agenda of our newly established World Ports Sustainability Program, in which we will strive to formulate a global strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ports.