New Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Ports: The Deep Demonstration in Maritime Hubs project

Environmental challenges related to ports are twofold, namely the effects of maritime transport on the environment (e.g. pollution, CO2 emissions) and conversely the environmental impact on maritime transport e.g. Climatic Variability and Change. This chapter presents an overview of main challenges faced today, to engage port proactively take the responsibility of providing reward schemes or green certificates to complied ships, and to identify key indicators in measuring GHG emissions. European Union has put into force a number of Directives and Regulations aiming to incentivise port and shipping companies to commit to comply with environmental standards. The IMO 2020 regulation, bringing the sulphur cap in fuel oil for ships down from 3.50 per cent to 0.50 per cent, is expected to bring significant benefits for human health and the environment, while the European Green Deal, the most ambitious action plan of European Union, aims at increasing the EU�s greenhouse gas emission reductions target for 2030 to at least 50% compared with 1990 levels, creating the most ambitious package of measures, accompanied by an initial roadmap of key policies in cutting-edge research and innovation, in green technologies and sustainable solutions. Among them, Deep Demonstrations by EIT Climate-KIC using systems innovation approach aim at the decarbonisation of the European ports and the sustainable transformation of their key elements.