Responding to scrutiny from an environmental watchdog over
its carbon emissions, Europe’s largest and busiest port says that it intends to
make its impact more transparent.
On the day that NGO Transport & Environment (T&E)
revealed that the port of Rotterdam was associated with almost 14 million
tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, making it the most carbon-emitting port in
Europe, the Port of Rotterdam Authority said it has partnered with the
consultancy BigMile to develop a digital platform to identify and track
transport-related emissions within its waters.
Over the next six months, the authority and BigMile will
undertake a pilot project to calculate seagoing and inland vessel movements
within the port with the aim of better understanding its emissions levels.
The port intends to use AIS data to precisely calculate
transport sector emissions. The emission platform will help the port and
business community make better choices and implement strategies to make the
facility a carbon-neutral port. Findings from the project will be shared with
shipping companies and terminals in the second half of the year.
“With millions of transport movements, we are the largest
port in Europe. This means that our activities can have a huge impact on making
logistics more sustainable,” said Nico van Dooren, who is responsible for the
Port of Rotterdam Authority’s energy transition program.
He added the port is working on a series of related projects
to make the industry and logistics more sustainable, from determining optimal
connections via the most sustainable modality to the production of alternative
fuels and promoting fast and efficient port call handling.
As Europe’s largest and busiest port, Rotterdam has been
handling an average of 14.5 million TEU throughput annually. It is an absolute
leader in crude oil handling and storage in Northwest Europe, moving 100
million tonnes of oil every year, almost entirely for refineries within the
port and the nearby region.
A new study by T&E shows that transport emissions at
Rotterdam are also somewhat significant at 13.7 million metric tonnes - nearly
twice its largest competitor, Antwerp.
With the digital platform, Rotterdam said it is taking a
step towards using sound data to manage its emissions reduction strategy.
BigMile has developed a calculation and analysis platform to help shippers and
logistics service providers optimize and report on the multi-modal
transport-related carbon emissions of their transport. Its platform, which
already has over 200 users, helps logistics firms comply with carbon reporting
requirements and regulations.
“In the first project phase, we are focusing on area
emissions in the port of Rotterdam area, from 60 kilometres offshore to the
Brienenoordbrug. We are literally ‘charting’ sea-going and inland shipping’s
actual emissions based on vessel and vehicle movements,” explained Wouter
Nering Bögel, BigMile project manager.