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DECARBONISING PORTS USING GREEN PLANNING In this Q&A GreenPort talks to Richard Marsh, partner at law firm BDB Pitmans, about ports' routes to decarbonisation How was the decarbonisation exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic? It is clear from speaking to port users and operators that A the past year has been extremely difficult; revenues have been significantly hit and, for many, there has had to be a primary focus on business survival. So, it is understandable that company decarbonisation measures and plans may have taken a back seat, particularly where capital expenditure is involved. But notwithstanding the pandemic, there will be a strong push from the government to incentivise and require sector and corporate decarbonisation; in fact only last month the government confirmed that it will commit cutting carbon emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels, and will adopt the 6th carbon budget proposed by the Committee on Climate Change which, for the first time, will include international shipping and aviation emissions. Provided that economies recovers well from the Covid pandemic, ports will hopefully come to the conclusion that expenditure on decarbonisation measures now will result in long term savings, as well as having considerable collateral benefits, such as strengthening public relations, contributing towards corporate social / ESG responsibility and assisting with employee relations, retention and attraction.
Provided that economies recovers well from the Covid pandemic, ports will hopefully come to the conclusion that expenditure on decarbonisation measures now will result in long term savings In terms of formulating a decarbonisation strategy, do you have advice about how ports can go about creating one? Each port's decarbonisation strategy will very much A depend on the size of its estate, the nature of its operations and the extent of 'free space' (including roof space) that can be used for infrastructure such as solar panels, wind turbines etc. Although not a legal consideration, it is absolutely vital for a port's decarbonisation strategy to be driven forward by a passionate and dynamic individual or team or, otherwise, to outsource part or all of the strategy creation / implementation to external consultants. Jerry Clarke at Portsmouth Port is a perfect example of this necessary role. We, BDB Pitmans, are using an external environmental consultancy to help us to both measure our baseline carbon footprint and also devise decarbonisation strategies; a law firm is obviously very different to a port, but I believe that seeking at least initial strategy advice from external experts is an excellent use of money and time.
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What role has BDB Pitmans played in helping ports to realise their green potential? The BDB Pitmans Infrastructure Planning team have a long history of providing development planning and
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Photo: PiP
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commercial legal advice to the UK's ports. That ranges from advice on developing, redeveloping or extending ports (including securing the necessary planning consents / Harbour Revision Order powers and, in the process, advising on the legal requirements in respect of environmental effects and Net Zero / GHG / sustainability considerations) to advising on all legal aspects of implementing decarbonisation measures (such as solar panels, electricity infrastructure, wind turbines) within port estates. We are currently advising on a wide range of solar farms, hydrogen projects and pipeline developments; we understand the issues that crop up on both port and energy developments. In addition BDB Pitmans, as a firm, is able to offer the full range of legal services that ports and port users require, including planning, real estate, corporate, finance and commercial contracts.
8 The port matches environmental initiatives with available funding to get the best chance of implementation
What were the key take homes from the BDB Pitmans ‘Decarbonising Ports: The Route to Net Zero’ aim of the webinar (with panel speakers from the A The British Ports Association, Portsmouth Port, Red Funnel Ferries, Vattenfall Network Solutions and Royal Haskoning DHV) was to bring together a range of port users, port operators, energy solution providers and consultants to discuss the challenges and issues that port users and operators are facing in decarbonising their operations and, critically, to discuss the range of measures that certain users and operators are implementing (or will soon be implementing) to rapidly reduce their carbon emissions. The messages arising from the event were: 4 There are a huge number of 'easy wins' that port operators and users can implement to make decent inroads into their carbon emissions 4 It doesn't necessarily require significant expenditure on
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