Environmental sustainability

The port sector is vital for a country’s integration into and competitiveness within international trade networks. Ports are essential for developing economies, which handle a significant volume of global trade. They are also integral for low-income countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which often depend disproportionately on maritime transport for international trade. As such, ports are key to the development agenda (World Bank 2023). Traditional factors of port and trade competitiveness are the quality of services, infrastructure, and efficient hinterland integration. These factors are complemented by contemporary factors such as readiness for digitalization, decarbonization of port-related GHG emissions and maritime shipping, resilience to climate change, and environmental performance of operations.
Ports are a major growth sector in the world economy, given the growing levels of economic activity and investments. The port sector generates substantial revenues, employment and local value-added, and plays a significant role in shaping the performance of other industries and the wider economies that they serve. Ports must be adequately resourced in a physical sense, given their critical importance to economic development and social welfare. They should also be prepared to respond to the emerging changes in their environment.
At the same time, ports contribute to negative health impacts resulting from environmental externalities (Vega-Muñoz 2021) such as pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Port authorities and terminal operators are becoming aware of these externalities and are starting to consider the mitigation of environmental issues as a competitive advantage for their terminals (Acciaro and Wilmsmeier 2015). In addition, issues such as transparency of the supply chain and strong awareness of the surrounding communities demand a new approach to sustainable development of port activities (Vega-Muñoz 2021).

source:
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