Calculating the Carbon Footprint in ports by using a standardized tool

Abstract

One of the significant environmental threats in ports in recent years are carbon dioxide emissions generated by different activities carried out in these areas, which lead to Climate Change. In the maritime industry, this topic is getting more critical every day. The main cause of Climate Change is the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). The total amount of GHG that are emitted both directly and indirectly by an activity are calculated by the following indicator: the Carbon Footprint. The review of different case studies shows while in recent years many ports calculate their Carbon Footprint and report it, each port uses its own method and there is not any unified and complete method to calculate Carbon Footprint. This makes comparing results among different ports a difficult task and proves the need for such a method. Therefore, it has been developed a standardized tool to calculate GHG emissions in ports. The tool has been developed by using Excel and Visual Basic software and it is based on the WPCI (World Ports Climate Initiative) and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) guidelines and the GHG Protocol. Such tool is specifically designed so that port authorities can calculate their Carbon Footprint and report it accordingly. The tool has different steps taking into account the three scopes of emissions defined by the WPCI guideline for ports. Once developed, it was validated by a set of selected ports and environmental experts. The final aim is to distribute this tool to all ports and make it freely available.