The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) published the Environmental Report 2020 on port performances and readiness for sustainable transformation as well as environmental impact. The report was presented in line with an online event taking place at 10th of November.
Around 60% of the participating ports can be classified as small and medium-sized ports according to their tonnage handling, which represents the main target groups of Connect2SmallPorts project. In general, the report underlines the need of more innovation-driven and future oriented changes in (small and medium-sized) ports. Digitalization of port operations has a big impact on ports environmental impact and support the green transition of small and medium-sized port in line with the 2050 regulations.
While the ports emphasized increasing challenges in line with the climate change (+10% to 2019 and +27% to 2018), the share of ports considering climate change adaptation as part of new infrastructure development is decreasing (-5% to 2019 and -9% to 2018). Furthermore, key indicators like the Environmental Management Index are still decreasing since 2017, underlining the need of supporting ports on several levels for sustainable transformation.
The full report is available here.
