ESPO Environmental Report 2021

EcoPortsinSights 2021

The ESPO Environmental Report is part of EcoPorts, the environmental flagship initiative of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO). This 6th edition is based on data from 99 European ports from 21 European countries, who filled in the EcoPorts Self-Diagnosis Method (SDM) (www.ecoports.com). The SDM is a checklist of good practice and provides the database for this report.

With climate change and environmental issues on top of both the ports and the policy makers’ agendas, the 2021 Report has become an essential tool to monitor performance and see where problems arise. It provides ESPO and European policymakers with insights on the environmental issues that European ports are working on, and informs the priorities of ESPO.

For 2021, the report shows a number of positive trends amongst key indicators. Based on the slightly larger sample compared to in 2020, the Top 10 environmental priorities of European ports are almost the same. The five top priorities are the same as in 2020, with air quality, climate change, and energy efficiency as the top three priorities.

The 2021 Report also finds that ports are demonstrably improving their environmental management, addressing their priorities through bottom-up initiatives. In 2021, a growing number of ports provided environmental training programs and training, and close to 40% of ports are certified with EcoPorts PERS, which is the only port-specific certification on the market.

Together with the ESPO Green Guide 2021, the ESPO Environmental Report strengthens the long-standing efforts of European ports to monitor and address high priority environmental issues.

Source: ESPO