Climate Change Countermeasures in Ports Toward Carbon Neutrality

As hubs for logistics and passengers, ports consume a lot of energy; therefore, their CO₂ emissions are high, which includes the consumption of purchased external electricity.

As discussed in the previous chapter, although a wide range of climate change countermeasures can be applied to ports, currently, there is a lack of universally adopted countermeasures in the port industry in practical terms.

Port-related CO₂ emissions are primarily attributed to vessels, port activities, or port hinterland transport; however, the substantial number of hinterland transport vehicles and vessels traveling into ports also account for a large share of the CO₂ emissions from vehicles.

In the previous chapter, the CO₂ emission reduction effects of the introduction of E-RTG and HSC at Hakata Port in Japan were quantitatively analyzed. It was found that E-RTG and HSC reduced CO₂ emissions by 76% and 29% per unit, respectively. The overall CO₂ emissions of CTs decreased despite a large increase in the number of cargo-handling machines and cargo-handling volume, compared to before the introduction of the countermeasures, resulting in a 36.5% reduction in CO₂ emissions per TEU. Although the CO₂ emission reduction effect can be confirmed, when two S/C units were renewed at Hakata Port in 2019, the normal type with higher CO₂ emissions was purchased instead of the hybrid type. Why is this happening even though HSC has certain decarbonization benefits, and Hakata Port Terminal Co., Ltd. (HPT) itself is aware of this?

The main sources of energy consumption in port activities are cargo-handling machinery and reefer containers (RCs) (Acciaro and Wilmsmeier, Res Transp Bus Manag 17:1–7, 2015; Ilio et al., Energ Convers Manag 243:114423, 2021.; Iris and Lam, Renew Sustain Energy Rev 112:170–182, 2019; van Duin et al., J Clean Prod 193:72–86, 2018; Wang et al., Transp Res Part D Transp Environ 82:102318, 2020).

In this chapter, first, the proposed simulation model is used to calculate the actual energy-saving effects at Hakata Port. Although the simulation model proposed in the previous chapter was developed to evaluate the effects of the RS installed at HICCT and used detailed experimental measurements in summer as input values, such data are not usually available. If equivalent results can be obtained, even if the input values are general data that are easily available, the simulation model can be applied to other seasons and ports with different surrounding environments, such as temperature and solar radiation, and the versatility of the simulation model will be enhanced. This chapter verifies this hypothesis and confirms the seasonal and regional characteristics of the energy-saving effects of RS through simulations at other ports.

The preceding chapters discussed climate change countermeasures related to cargo-handling machinery and RCs. The current level of implementation of climate change countermeasures is not conducive to the realization of the ambitious emission reduction targets expressed by international organizations.

The relationship between climate change countermeasures and the logistics function of ports has received little attention. The use of next-generation energy and recyclable resources as climate change countermeasures may improve feasibility by reducing costs through improved logistics efficiency and the role of ports as transportation hubs may be significant. For example, the spread of low-carbon technologies (electric vehicles and low-carbon power generation technologies) could significantly increase the demand for copper, which would likely increase the dependence on recyclable resources as raw materials. While transportation may have a significant impact on the cost and CO₂ emissions of procuring recyclable resources with complex reverse logistics (Reddy, K.N., Kumar, A., Sarkis, J., Tiwari, M.K., 2020. Effect of carbon tax on reverse logistics network design. Computers & Industrial Engineering. 139.), there are insufficient academic findings on the impact of the increased introduction of recyclable resources, including logistics, climate change action, and the realization of a CE, which may be conflicting goals in some cases. If ports could help resolve this conflict, then increased usage of recyclable resources, particularly for next-generation energy can be regarded as climate change countermeasures in ports. Hence, this chapter focuses on the trade-off problem between CE and climate change countermeasures.