Overview of status and priorities for sustainable management of european seaports

Abstract

In the past decade a strong commitment in terms of environmental protection and sustainable development in port sector is noted. In order to achieve and maintain the environmental performance of port it is necessary to establish guidelines and priorities. This paper presents status and priorities which are marked within the European port sector through ESPO`s Ecoports environmental reports for the period 2013-2018. The change of environmental priorities in the port sector over the years has been noticed and therefore potential reasons for priority changes are addressed in this paper. The general aim of set priorities is to provide information about the high priority environmental issues and thus set the framework for guidance and initiatives that influence the environmental performance of the port. The analysis indicates that most of European ports actively work to protect the environment and thus guarantee sustainable development. From 2016 to 2018 the top 3 priorities have been the same (air quality, noise and energy efficiency), while air quality has remained the number one priority of the European ports since 2013. It is interesting to highlight that climate change priority which has been introduced in 2017 has been rapidly climbing the ranks and went up by 3 places in 2018