PIONEERS’ ambition is to implement green port innovation demonstrations in order to address the challenge for European ports of reducing GHG emissions while remaining competitive. The project brings together four ports (Antwerp-Bruges, Barcelona, Constanta & Venlo) with different characteristics but shared commitments toward Green Deal and Blue Growth socio-economic aims. Arne-Jan Polman, Port of Rotterdam, spoke during the round table between Ports to discuss on the important challenges for ports on the path to the green transition. He has declared that MAGPIE “plays a central role in Port of Rotterdam’s transition to climate neutrality by 2050”. In this project, new energy carriers are demonstrated along the various modalities and new smart solutions are launched. The results of the demo projects and the other project deliverables will be recorded in Port of Rotterdam’s smart green port masterplan. This will contain a roadmap for becoming carbon neutral and smart port surroundings in 2050 with intermediate steps in 2030 and 2040. Arne-Jan Polman adds: “To reach these ambitious goals we will not only look into new technologies, but also into system changes needed in the field of policy making like permits, subsidies, tax regulations.” As a last question, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was evoked. Arne-Jan Polman has declared that “it has become clear how intermingled we are in the current world as nation states, ports and industry and how the EU as a whole is affected. However, this acute problem will probably push our industry into speeding up the smart energy transition. Projects like PIONEERS and MAGPIE certainly help to keep the pace needed”.
Learn more about the program : Programme (pioneers-ports.eu)
