The Third International Consultative Committee meeting of DocksTheFuture project took place on 29 July 2020 between 11.00-12.15. The Objective of the conf.call  was to discuss how to implement the European Green Deal objectives in European ports , the drivers and challenges. For this purpose, two officials from the ESPO were invited to present.

The participants of this meeting were from three below groups:

• The ICC extinguished members:   Michele Acciaro, Paul Brewster, Angela Carpenter, Drik’t Hooft, Alessandro.Panaro
• ESPO: Isabelle Ryckbost -Secretary General, & Valter Selén – Senior Policy Advisor Sustainable Development, Cruise and Ferry Network, EcoPorts Coordinator
• Docks The Future (DTF) project’s partners: Circle s.p.a: Reza Karimpour, Alexio Picco, PortExpertise group: Joris Claeys, Peter Bresseleers, Magellan Association: Andrea Hrzic, ISL Group, and Circle Group.

Mr.Reza Karimpour from Circle s.p.a organised this  Docks The Future conf.call and welcomed the participants. Mr.Alexio Picco from Circle s.p.a that leads the project welcomed the participants of the meeting and explained about the project and its progress. He gave a brief introduction to the project. He mentioned that the project is coordinated by Circle S.p.A (Italy) as the leader of the project working group including ISL – Institut für Seeverkehrswirtschaft und Logistik  (Germany) ,Magellan (Portugal), PortExpertise (Belgium) , University of Genoa (Italy).

After welcoming, Mr. Alexio Picco left the floor to  Ms. Isabelle Ryckbost -Secretary General to present the “ESPO’s Roadmap to implement the European Green Deal objectives in ports”. She started with mentioning the overall view of the EU Green Deal with a focus on three elements of: More than lowering emissions = New Growth strategy, Transforming the economy, “transforming the way we produce and consume”, and Sustainable product policy “Will frame everything what is happening”.

In continuation, she added that Green deal goals are:

• Net-zero by 2050
• 50 to 55% by 2030
• 90% CO2 emission reduction by 2050 for transport
• New Climate Law: enshrining carbon neutrality by 2050 into law

It was stated that ESPO welcomes Europe’s ambition to be the world’s first net zero emission area by 2050. However, this ambition must be delivered in the most effective way while the competitiveness of Europe’s economy must be safeguarded. In addition, it should be noted that achieving this objective will require an unprecedented level of cooperation across all policy departments and stakeholders.

M.s Isabelle at this stage highlighted the importance of the EU Ports as key strategic partners at the crossroads of supply chains, clusters of energy, and clusters of industry clusters of blue economy. They can be a key strategic partner in making the European Green Deal happen . . . . . . . . continue reading the report on the DocksTheFuture website here