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For centuries, ports and shipping have been key pillars of international trade and cooperation and a strong enabler of globalisation and economic development worldwide. However, ports and shipping are amongst the most significant sources of pressures on the marine environment, and can cause environmental degradation.

The catalogue of measures

Nowadays, marine shipping and port activities support around 90% of global trade. Port expansion in Europe has experienced a significant surge over the past two decades, resulting in a 12% increase in port area.  
However, ports are full of structures and activities, which cause multiple pressures and impacts on marine environment. Ports structures, dregging and ship manoeuvres  can cause habitat losses, and ports generate negative impacts on water quality, coastal hydrology, bottom contamination, marine and coastal ecology, air quality, noise, and waste management .
Furthermore, according to the ‘European Maritime Transport Environmental Report 2021', marine transport will continue to grow in the next decades, and consequently, the associated environmental pressures.

To reduce pressures in natural waters and in port areas, and make ports and shipping activities more sustainable, Member States have developed and implemented several programmes of measures under different legal instruments, such as the Habitats Directive (HD; Council Directive 92/43/EEC), the Birds Directive (BD; Directive 2009/147/EC), the Water Framework Directive (WFD; Directive 2000/60/EC), and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; Directive 2008/56/EC).

In parallel, there are links with Europe’s Blue Growth strategy and the ongoing European Maritime Spatial Planning (MSPD; Directive 2014/89/EU) implementation processes, as well as the corresponding relevance within the Agenda 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; e.g. SDG 14.1 on marine pollution, SDG 9 on infrastructure). Additionally, some of the measures adopted to reduce pressures are not linked to the implementation of any legislation, but instead have been voluntarily taken by the shipping and ports industry.

Go to the Shipping and ports catalogue of measures

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Notes about sectorial measures. In addition to the measures reported under the EU Directives, the catalogue includes a selection of sectoral measures for sustainable ports and shipping. The implementation of these measures is not driven by Members States, but instead relies on voluntary action by the shipping and ports industry. The measures are sourced from a screening of academic and grey literature, including reports from European research projects.

Explore the measures related to MSFD descriptors

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Read more on the scope and methodology

References

  1. Lam, J.S.L. and Notteboom, T. 2014. The greening of ports: a comparison of port management tools used by leading ports in Asia and Europe, Transport Reviews, Vol. 34(2), pp. 169-189. DOI:10.1080/01441647.2014.891162
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