Germany’s Port of Kiel has set the goal of reducing all of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to zero by 2030.

The path to climate neutrality has been described in a newly released three-step plan that puts the port’s BLUE PORT concept into concrete terms.

The plan was unveiled with the first presentation of the environmental report on 24 November.

“We support the climate protection goals of the State Capital City of Kiel and are taking a pioneering role in terms of CO2 reduction. The port will be climate-neutral by the end of this decade,” Dirk Claus, Managing Director of the Port of Kiel, stressed.

Specifically, the port’s three-step plan envisages covering 60 per cent of the energy requirements of ships calling at Kiel with green electricity as early as next year.

By 2025, this figure is expected to reach 80 to 90 percent, before climate neutrality is achieved for all activities of the Port of Kiel in 2030 through the interaction of a wide range of measures.

Emissions of nitrogen oxides and particles will also be further reduced with the help of the new measures. However, these are already being dissipated in the background pollution today and are well below the applicable limit values, the port said.

According to the environmental report, the Port of Kiel already avoided more than 6,200 tonnes of CO2 in 2020, while almost 18,800 tonnes were still emitted.

“With the presentation of the environmental report, emissions are quantified and thus transparent for the first time. It shows that the BLUE PORT strategy initiated in 2018 is having an effect. We will also assess further progress on this basis,” Dirk Scheelje, chairman of the Port of Kiel supervisory board and member of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen council faction, said.

Measures to supply all port facilities with 100 per cent climate-neutral green electricity have already been implemented. In addition, the energy demand at the terminals has been sustainably reduced by switching to economical LED technology and increasing energy efficiency, while at the same time photovoltaic systems provide around 290,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy every year.

 

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Port of Kiel lays out 3-step plan to reach net zero