UNCTAD experts focus on smart sustainable ports

At the Palais des Nations in Geneva, UNCTAD hosted the 11th multi-year expert meeting focused on transport, trade, logistics and trade facilitation. At the 24 October event, UNCTAD economic affairs officer Luisa Antonia Rodriguez Ortega explained the organisation’s Smart Sustainable Port project (SSP). IAPH is supporting this SSP pilot work in collaboration with the selected ports of Port Louis (Mauritius), Tanger Med (Morocco) and Tema (Ghana) and will report the results at the #IAPH2025 World Ports Conference in Kobe next year. Luisa was supported by a remote intervention by IAPH’s communications and strategy director Victor Shieh on establishing what is needed by ports in developing countries on electrification, future fuel adoption, energy efficiency and onshore power, and how to accelerate realistic financing for the energy transition.

Notably, Luisa mentioned the SSP pilot work with Mauritius Ports Authority for its cruise terminal project. Minerva Lim of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Hicham Kharoufi of Tanger Med also explained their work on decarbonisation. For MPA, this covered work in energy corridors with Japan and Australia and in pilot bunkering new fuels such as ammonia. For Tanger Med, this comprised successful implementation of Port Call Optimization measures in practice, reducing anchor waiting times by over half on average and providing measurable reductions in CO2 emissions by thousands of tonnes per year. AT Consult’s Wisdom Ahiataku Togobo explained Ghana’s ambitious aims to adopt solar energy and outlined Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority’s goal of electrifying operations at the port of Tema and to decarbonise in a sustainable manner.
Source: IAPH