The European Union is highlighting a broad range of initiatives agreed to at the closing of the three-day One Day Ocean Summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in his role leading the Council of the European Union. Port authorities and stakeholders around the world joined in at the summit signing a joint commitment to reduce the environmental impact of stopovers made by container and cruise ships during their sea journeys. Other agreements focused on illegal fishing and increasing understanding of the oceans.

The declaration from the ports was led by the French Ministry of Transport and sets a new objective for promoting green maritime transport. In announcing the agreement, the organizations said that it aligns with the principle of the blue economy, which aims to make all human activities around seas, rivers, and lakes environmental-friendly and respectful of biodiversity.

Port authorities and stakeholders signed a joint commitment to reduce the environmental impact of stopovers expanding their focus which has mostly been on cruise ships and ferries to include containerships which make up a large percent of port traffic. The port authorities committed to deploying shore-side electricity supply for container and cruise ships by 2028.

The European Investment Bank announced its support for declaration and confirmed its commitment to support a low-carbon economy. EIB’s Vice-President, Ambroise Fayolle highlighted that ports play an essential role in the global connectivity of European economies and their regions. He noted that the EU has more than 300 sea-ports, which are part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), emissions from ships at berth in EU ports represented around seven percent of CO2 emissions from maritime transport in the EU in 2020 as well as contributing to the noise in the surrounding heavily populated urban areas.