London: Major ports in northern Europe will be rewarding clean ocean-going vessels with discounts on their port dues, it was announced at a press event hosted by the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) here today. The scheme will be rolled out at the Dutch ports of Amsterdam, Moerdijk, Dordrecht and Rotterdam beginning January 1, with Antwerp, Hamburg and Bremen planning to later follows suit.
Vessels will be rewarded if they perform better than the norm on the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), a new international standard for ships' emissions into the atmosphere designed jointly by the ports of Le Havre, Bremen, Hamburg, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The index shows the environmental performance of ships in terms of their emission of air pollutants (NOx and SOx) and CO2.
Other ports and nautical service providers throughout the world will be encouraged to adopt use of the index to reward ships, thereby promoting sustainable behaviour in the shipping industry.
ESI has been developed under the auspices of the World Ports Climate Initiative, a collective of 55 prominent ports within the IAPH which work actively to reduce air pollution, and the emission of CO2 in particular. [02/11/10]
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