Port giant ABP has launched a £2 billion plan to clean up its operations by 2040 while helping the UK energy transition with major infrastructure projects.
Ready for Tomorrow is a wide-ranging sustainability strategy, and includes a commitment to decarbonise huge quayside handling operations with a £600 million pot to cover vessels, cranes and equipment, with a further £1.4 billion to support customers.
Much of the development is centred around the Humber, with five of six highlighted green energy infrastructure projects underlining the capability and opportunity in the estuary. Green Port Hull, Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal, Grimsby offshore wind operations and maintenance hub, Immingham Green Energy Terminal and Viking carbon capture and storage are all set out, all key pillars in the transition to Net Zero.
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The proposal also maps out the building of greater partnership and collaboration to meet the challenges and “grasp the generational opportunities of sustainability”.
Henrik Pedersen, ABP’s chief executive, said: “Climate change is an era-defining challenge, but it is also an opportunity to scale innovative new industries to leave an optimistic legacy for generations to come.
“ABP is ready for tomorrow. We are committed to working together with industry partners and authorities to turn this generational crisis into a generational opportunity: to create a decarbonised, dramatically more sustainable future and deliver the significant investment, economic growth and thousands of new, good jobs that should come with it.”
The document comes with a call for Government to play a vital enabling role too with the need to “develop a supportive, collaborative and consistent policy environment, to progress approvals and consents in a timely manner and to, on occasion, deploy pump priming or bridging support in cases of market failure” highlighted.
Maritime Minister Baroness Vere has welcomed the strategy. She said: “The UK is a pioneer in cutting-edge clean maritime solutions, with hundreds of millions of pounds of government funding being invested in developing greener, cleaner vessels and infrastructure.
“However, it’s vital that industry also invests in our future, and I’m therefore very pleased to see Associated British Ports doing just that, ensuring we’re ‘Ready for Tomorrow’ and injecting billions into decarbonising our maritime sector.”
Zero emissions, air quality, biodiversity, waste and water management are all to be addressed internally, as five focus areas, and it comes on the back of a UK first hydrogen trial for port plant equipment. Massive solar installations have also been incorporated on the Humber, with electrified craneage and others using green fuels.
Major steps are also being taken towards port-centric hydrogen supply.
The company said it will continue to develop its leading offshore wind manufacturing and support hubs in the Humber and East Anglia, as well as more than doubling its own green power generation.
Nick Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group, a sustainable business organisation whose members have a cumulative turnover of around £600 billion, said: “The launch of ABP’s sustainability strategy marks an important moment in the UK economy’s transition to net zero emissions. Decarbonising ports is not only important in itself, but it is also essential to support the decarbonisation of other key parts of the economy such as energy generation, shipping and heavy industries like steel.
“By taking proactive steps to cut emissions in a part of the economy that is complex to decarbonise, ABP is demonstrating true leadership and showing that the business community is ready to lead the UK economy to net zero. The Government must respond by showing equivalent leadership in the coming months through strengthening the UK’s net zero strategy.”
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