PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom in cooperation with Jasmine Siu Lee Lam, presented their latest research on the green port toolbox: a comparison of port management tools used by leading ports in Asia and Europe, during the annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists – IAME 2012, that was held in Taipei, Taiwan.
The study attempts to fill the literature gap and the much desired industry needs by researching on green port development from the policy and management perspective. This study aims to investigate the port management tools that port/public authorities have at their disposal and then to analyze to what extent the tools are used to enforce or encourage green port development at various activities of port operations and development. An analysis conducted based on two axes: on one hand the range of tools available to port authorities (i.e. pricing, monitoring and measuring, as well as market access control and environmental standard regulation) and on the other hand the functional activities in ports (i.e. ships traffic, cargo handling and storage operations, intermodal connection, industrial activities and port expansion). The situations in the leading ports in Asia and Europe, namely Singapore, Shanghai, Antwerp and Rotterdam are studied and compared. Findings show that the ports are particularly mature in exercising environmental standard regulations which reveals that the enforcement approach is more prevalent. The most focused functional activity is ship traffic which reflects that the ports are driven by the advisory from the International Maritime Organisation. The respective port authorities in Antwerp and Rotterdam have a higher level of influence on devising green port policy in comparison to the two Asian ports due to a relatively open geopolitical culture in Western Europe. The analytical framework and policies investigated in the paper would be a useful toolbox for green port development.
You might read – and freely download – the full study @PortEconomics.
The annual conference of the International Association of Marime Economists – IAME 2012, held in Taipei, Taiwan, provided the PortEconomics team the opportunity to present 16 different port or port related studies that progressed over the course of the most resent months – read more & reach the studies: PortEconomics team@IAME2012