Sustainability
Policy Asks
- Commit to expanded UK SHORE funding, as recommended by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s report on Net Zero Shipping. This must include funding for mature technologies such as shore power, which will be innovative in the size and scale of the likely roll-out.
- Launch a plan for freight energy connections by the end of 2024, setting out funding and pathways for how ports, as key energy hubs, will be able to access energy networks for the power they need in future as well as being able to supply the clean energy they are generating.
Ports have ambitious net zero plans and, as guardians of their rivers, estuaries and seascapes, are delivering protections and enhancements for local habitats. Regulation and targets surrounding the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and mitigating and adapting to climate change are the most significant facing the sector and require close and ongoing partnership between government and the ports and other industries.
The industry needs some targeted support in the journey to reducing emissions, particularly around ensuring that ports can access energy networks as demand for and generation of electricity at ports will scale quickly in coming years. The grid needs to be able to support ports’ ambitions in this area. On shipping emissions at berth and alternative fuels, government will need to remain technologically neutral and be ready to support ports with their long-term plans.
Climate change is already affecting UK ports, which are on the front lines of the impacts of more extreme weather and rising sea levels. We need government to ensure that the infrastructure our industry depend on is as resilient as the ports themselves and that the information needed to make decisions about adaptation are available and accessible.
Ports support the principle of net gain (or net benefit) to tackle the biodiversity crisis. Industry can help reverse biodiversity loss through development, but for this to be effective there is a fine balance between ensuring ports remain competitive and attractive to developers and investors, and ensuring that the regulatory framework delivers for nature. We do not think this balance has been achieved and need government to ensure that we are able to build and expand ports to deliver the additional port capacity we need for expected growth in logistics and to capture the jobs and prosperity from the energy transition.
The industry needs some targeted support in the journey to reducing emissions, particularly around ensuring that ports can access energy networks as demand for and generation of electricity at ports will scale quickly in coming years. The grid needs to be able to support ports’ ambitions in this area. On shipping emissions at berth and alternative fuels, government will need to remain technologically neutral and be ready to support ports with their long-term plans.
Climate change is already affecting UK ports, which are on the front lines of the impacts of more extreme weather and rising sea levels. We need government to ensure that the infrastructure our industry depend on is as resilient as the ports themselves and that the information needed to make decisions about adaptation are available and accessible.
Ports support the principle of net gain (or net benefit) to tackle the biodiversity crisis. Industry can help reverse biodiversity loss through development, but for this to be effective there is a fine balance between ensuring ports remain competitive and attractive to developers and investors, and ensuring that the regulatory framework delivers for nature. We do not think this balance has been achieved and need government to ensure that we are able to build and expand ports to deliver the additional port capacity we need for expected growth in logistics and to capture the jobs and prosperity from the energy transition.