EMEA News
BPO: Environmental Port Charging Should Remain Voluntary
Baltic Ports Organization (BPO) today said that "environmental charging" by ports within the European Union (EU) should stay voluntary.
The comments come in light of a recent report published by the European Commission (EC) that examined differentiated port infrastructure charges, exploring the benefits and challenges linked to their implementation.
"BPO welcomes DG Move's report on environmentally differentiated port charges. It is a very good and comprehensive study on how EU ports, among them quite many Baltic ports, apply these kinds of schemes to support the use of environmental technologies and management by ship-owners," said Bogdan Oldakowski, BPO Secretary General.
"BPO is of the opinion that use of environmental charging should stay voluntary at the EU level."
Financial incentives for the shipping sector of as much as €1.4 billion ($1.63 billion) are said to be achievable over a 5-year period if all EU ports, including those in Norway and Turkey, were to decide to implement an environmental charging scheme.
"That said, an inappropriate implementation of 'environmental charging' does pose risks," said BPO, adding: "voluntary nature of these incentives, which as of now remain regulated individually by the ports, might result in a spike in prices, in turn leading to a drop in business volumes."
BPO, like the report, suggests that, while keeping such programmes voluntary, a more coordinated and streamlined approach to environmental charging could be of benefit in implementation, easing the impact on both ports and the shipping sector in the process.
The full EC-published report can be viewed here.
