Usually, the ports host public events, and usually activists have plenty of criticisms. But everything was reversed on Nov 14, when Pacific Environment hosted its Green Shipping Community Workshop in Carson. In a way, it wasn’t that surprising. While Pacific Environment has its share of criticisms, it’s always focused more on pushing what’s possible. For example, as Random Lengths reported in December 2022, their initial set of “RePORT Cards for Shipping Ports,” cited the ports of LA and Long Beach as two of just five ports worldwide placed in the “full speed ahead” category, recognizing them for having “committed decarbonization plans,” even though their greenhouse gas emissions have risen by more than 20% over the past 15 years.
In the same spirit, the workshop was “the first time a green corridor has engaged with the public,” as
noted by Ellie Dean of C40 Cities, a global network of nearly 100 mayors worldwide confronting the climate crisis, which co-sponsored the event.
As Dawny’all Heydari, Pacific Environment’s climate campaign manager, explained, the Clydebank Declaration, signed by the US and 25 other countries in 2021 “establish[ed] the intention of creating at least six green shipping corridors by the middle of this decade. The goal behind this was to catalyze a transition more broadly by creating port-to-port agreements to go green along specific trade routes,” agreements that involve shipping companies and their customers as well governments and port agencies.
That goal of six has already been exceeded. “Over 20” have been announced globally, Dean said. Two of which involve the San Pedro ports — one with Shanghai, the other with Singapore. The swift action stands in stark contrast to the long period of delay that preceded it, during which shipping companies ordered massive fossil-fueled vessels projected to sail for three decades or more.
“The idea behind the green shipping corridors is really to set the standard and best practices that can be scaled up globally. So we’re not just focused on the individual corridors and the individual partners, but it’s really about setting the best practices to change global shipping, ultimately,” said Heather Tomely, head of environmental planning at the Port of Long Beach since 2014.
“The LA, Long Beach, Singapore corridor is focused on green and digital aspects,” said Lisa Wunder, Port of LA’s interim Director of Environmental Management. “The digital we wanted to add to that corridor because we see the importance of data and digital systems as really being up important to help support efficiencies in movement and pre-planning, providing more information so that the routes can be really maximized,” she said. “Those efficiency improvements are also critically important for reducing carbon emissions as well, reducing fuel use, so that’s an additional aspect we have been developing on Singapore corridors.”
Tomely also highlighted another sign of new urgency, a revised strategy from the International Maritime Organization (IMO). “The previous greenhouse gas strategy that the IMO had in place was to get to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. When they came together in July, in recognition of the urgency to move forward, they ended up establishing a goal to get to net zero by 2050. And so they took was a 50% reduction and dropped it all the way down,” Tomely said. “That international leadership, that direction, globally all the nations coming together, and agreeing that needs to be the target and the goal that we’re aiming for, really is critical to spurring the action and the attention that we need from this international industry for all of us to come together and find the solutions to meet that timeline and to act with urgency,” she said, going on to say, “So what we’re doing with our local actions is how can we harness that, how can we make sure that we’re getting the benefits of that, and how can we be in a position to help facilitate and push that forward as quickly as possible — so that we can capture those benefits, but so that we can also be part of the solution. So that’s really a lot of what we’re trying to do with the green corridors.”
“I totally agree with you, what happened at the IMO was historic,” Heydari said. “Shipping has traditionally been considered to be a hard-to-abate sector when it comes to climate mitigation, but now it’s one of the only hard-to-abate sectors that has 2030 and 2040 greenhouse gas reduction targets. So it is very significant.”
At LA and Long Beach, “The big challenge now is to move from plan to action and we see the shipping lines moving forward and there is action taking place,” Wunder said. “I was on a panel with Maersk a few days ago and they actually have 25 ships being constructed right now that are going to be able to run on alternate fuel. The first one is up and running and the other ones will be delivered within 12 to 18 months.” What’s more, she said, “I think the IMO has really sent a signal showing that this is happening and moving forward, so there are over a dozen shipping lines that are all ordering these ships that can run on alternative fuels and there’s over 180 ships between all these shipping lines that are being constructed right now.”
But that good news carries with it a challenge, she noted. “The issue is that there isn’t enough fuel being produced right now to be able to fuel those ships that are being constructed right now,” she warned. “So doing what we can do, forming those working groups to further that collaboration — really on a worldwide level — to get these alternative fuels being able to be processed is really one of the things we need to focus on to really make this happen.”
But this raised audience questions: What kind of fuels are being considered? Does this include non-zero fuels? The leading fuels being considered are “green methanol, green ammonia, and green hydrogen,” Tomely said, with green methanol currently the most advanced.
As for whether they’d be zero-emission or not, “It depends,” Andrew Waddell, of the Rocky Mountain Institute said. “There are many fuel-production pathways under consideration and competing zero-emission fuels,” such as pathways producing methanol by combining hydrogen, produced by electrolysis using zero-emission electricity, with a source of biogenic carbon. “There are many studies out there analyzing all the various complete life-cycle emissions of these fuels,” he added.
In addition to the ports’ environmental leaders, other panelists were Daniela Simunovic, a former state Air Resouces Board staffer representing the LA Mayor’s office, and Sarah Reese, a Deputy Executive Officer at the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
“We are at the point in the climate crisis where we need all hands on deck, all solutions, everybody working together,” Simunovic said. “and so I think that is one of the major passes key priorities community working with all key stakeholders labor on and all levels of government need to be engaged, and when were talking about the gold local that is a global issue not just local government, state government, it’s local government in China,” she said, going on to point to the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai.
“This is going to be the COP where everybody takes stock of the progress we’ve made in our commitments, the port directors will be there, talking about the progress that they’re making.” While “there’s a lot of polarizing issues that we can focus on,” she said, “green shipping corridors, I think, is one of the key lights in this dialogue, bringing together the partners in China and Shanghai.”
“Shipping is a really important sector for us because soon ships will be the top source of smog-forming emissions in our region,” Reese said, “which does dovetail nicely with climate goals. So, we’re very interested in green shipping corridors and making sure that it’s successful, in our region. We think there are a number of things we can do to facilitate that. A big part is leveraging the work that we do with technology demonstrations and piloting programs, so there are a lot of advanced technologies for ship engines and control systems that still need to be developed, and still need to see how they work in real-world conditions,” she explained. “There’s a lot of work that we have been doing, still teaming up with major ship engine manufacturers, to figure that out. I think there’s a lot of questions on the types fuels the vessels will use as well.”
“There’s a variety of fuels are being considered, for net zero or low carbon at this point,” Reese noted. “They all have different pros and cons, they all have, frankly, safety concerns, associated with them as well, and so I think figuring out how we can help pilot that and advance that, work through some of these problems at a practical level will be really important.”
In the question period, Tomley explained that “the IMO’s greenhouse gas strategy was setting emissions reductions for well to wake,” a life-cycle approach. “When you’re talking about are we ready, do we have the fuels? The answer is we don’t have any of these fuels here available for bunkering today.” But they’re in the planning process, “working on a clean marine fuel white paper to give us a better understanding about what are the emerging trends, what are the fuels, what are the considerations that we need to know,” again taking note of safety considerations.
Existing tank systems won’t handle such fuels, Tomley explained. “We’re talking about needing to have high-pressure cold storage,” she said. “These are really purpose-built facilities that we need to be developed. I believe the same is true on the ship side as well…. This is transformation. These are new technologies that will need to be developed and deployed using technologies that are suited to the purpose.”
On the ship side, Reese noted. “I think retrofits, figuring out how to retrofit ships and figuring out how to clean those existing ships that are going to be out there for decades” will be crucial. “It’s very very difficult to do,” she said, but it’s something that “were very interested in as an agency in figuring out what we can do…. We just gotta figure out a way to get to those existing vessels.”
One question raised was whether global climate leadership would come at an economic cost — specifically regarding AQMD’s prospective “indirect source rule” for ports, following a similar rule already in place for warehouses. “As part of our rulemaking efforts, we develop rules, we do economic analysis,” Reese said. “We do not anticipate any diversion as a result of this rule. We have a really good track record of developing rules that are flexible, that we know the technology, what’s feasible, and to really facilitate getting those actions to get to cleaner emissions and to clean up the air.”
In short, the workshop conveyed a broad positive attitude about the progress being made. But the devil, as always, will be in the details — not the least of which is the voluntary nature of the green corridors, so far. Random Lengths will continue reporting on those details, as it has for more than 40 years.