Australia’s NSW Ports to Offer Environmental Incentive for Ships

Australia’s NSW Ports plans to introduce an environmental incentive to apply to vessel related charges levied at Port Botany and Port Kembla.

NSW Ports, which is the first Australian port organisation to introduce such an incentive, is implementing this initiative to reward higher standards of environmental performance in ports.

The organization plans to develop the details of this program in consultation with relevant shipping lines, and is targeting a January 1, 2019 implementation.

Similar incentives exist at 53 ports globally, including the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Port of Los Angeles, USA; and the Port of New York and New Jersey, USA.

“NSW Ports has introduced the incentive to reward companies that use vessels with better air emissions performance,” Marika Calfas, NSW Ports CEO, said.

“The environmental incentive will be applied to vessels that perform better in reducing their emissions than the levels required by current emission standards of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO),” Calfas added.

The incentive would take the form of a discount on vessel related charges levied by NSW Ports on vessels that call at the ports of Port Botany and Port Kembla.

The incentives apply to vessels registered with the Environmental Ship Index (ESI).

The ESI is a scoring system that gives a numerical representation of the environmental performance of seagoing ships regarding air pollutants. It only includes ships that perform over and above current IMO international legislation on emission standards.

The ESI is a project within the World Ports Sustainability Program. ESI evaluates the amount of nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide that is emitted by a ship and includes a reporting scheme on the greenhouse gas emissions of the ship.