What drives ports around the world to adopt air emissions abatement measures?

The reduction of Greenhouse gasses (GHG) and other air emissions represents a major challenge for ports. Ports so far have only taken limited steps to this end, but there are large differences between ports.

PortEconomics members Henrik Sornn Friese, Peter de Langen, and co-authors René Taudal Poulsen and Agnieszka Urszula Nowinska, published their latest port study on the efforts of ports to reduce air emissions.

The study examines the drivers for the adoption of air emissions abatement measures in a sample of 93 of the world’s largest ports, covering all continents and mobile emitters. The findings suggest that ports are more likely to implement specific bundles of measures, in particular combining pricing and new energy sources, with the authors concluding that ports should coordinate abatement efforts to achieve effectiveness in their work.

The renewed focus on the role of ports in air emissions abatement finds support in earlier studies concluding that ports hold great potential generally in the shift to urban sustainability and specifically in contributing to reducing air emissions in maritime transport chains, whether the end-to-end shipping emissions generated at sea, emissions generated within the port, or emissions generated in the port hinterland transport system. Ships, trucks, trains, and terminal equipment are major causes of GHG emissions as well as sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen

The study can be freely downloaded via ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part D journal homepage: What drives ports around the world to adopt air emissions abatement measures?