Japan unveils ports decarbonisation plan

Japan’s Ports and Harbours Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has plans to achieve carbon net zero by 2050 at all Japanese ports via a new Carbon Neutral Ports (CNP) initiative backed by a CNP certification process.

The certification process will evaluate each terminal’s decarbonisation efforts.  Critically, this assessment will be on a per-terminal rather than a per-port basis. 

A wide variety of stratagems will be evaluated, including low-emission handling equipment and LED lighting on the terminal operation side and efforts concerning carriers, such as zero-emission vessel fuels and truck appointment systems.

In addition, the results of the evaluation process will be visible to all port users, as they too are encouraged to contribute to the carbon-zero target by 2050.