Director's corner: What we are looking forward to in 2020

Director's corner: What we are looking forward to in 2020

By Tine Kirk Pedersen, Director, Danish Ports

We have started a new year, and we can already promise that it will be a very exciting one - both for the Danish ports but also for the entire Blue Denmark in general. The ambitions for the green transition must be concretized, which is a work we are involved in through the government's climate partnerships, and in addition, the many projects continue in the ports, which have also taken on the whole challenge in an exemplary and constructive way. And then there is the big port conference in Aalborg in April!

Danish Ports in two of the Government's climate partnerships
As you know, the Government has set a target for Denmark to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. It has therefore invited parts of the business community to participate in a number of new climate partnerships, where the business community will contribute with solutions to how the target can become a reality.

Danish Ports has been invited to join two of the government's new climate partnerships, namely the partnership for Blue Denmark and the partnership for land transport, and we are therefore in the process of mapping out how we as an industry can do our part of the task. It is a big task, but the ports already have several projects underway that contribute to emission and CO2 reduction.

I was at Marienborg when Mette Frederiksen more officially launched the work on the climate partnerships, and since then we have continued working in the various groups so that we can quickly become concrete about how we can contribute to the overall plan.

Port Conference and General Assembly 2020
We have mentioned it before in both the newsletter and on the website, but it cannot be repeated enough, because it is Danish Ports' very big project this year: We are holding a port conference in Aalborg on April 22-23, 2020, and we hope you want to join us.

The theme of the conference is "Green transition requires a blue touch," because there is currently a massive focus on the work of reducing greenhouse gases. At the conference, you will therefore get closer to the climate perspectives for the Danish ports in a broad sense with a focus on everything from the government's climate partnerships, examples from the Danish ports on climate-friendly projects and the presentation of the Danish Ports' new sustainability award.

But of course, the conference will also give you an insight into the local work of Danish ports, focusing on the development of ports with the cities in which they are located and the impact of technological change.

Finally, the conference will include thematic sessions where you can get a deeper insight into the opportunities and challenges of Danish ports in relation to climate, technology, port development in the city and perspectives on the board work in a Danish port.

So reserve a place in your calendar for two exciting port days focusing on climate, the future of ports and political debate at the Danish Ports Association's port conference on April 22-23 in Aalborg.

You can see a preliminary program of the conference and register here!

Other things on the agenda
Although the first half of 2020 will be very much about climate partnerships and green transition and the port conference, we still have much more on the program.

Among other things, we are closely following the work for new rules in the pilotage area. Denmark is the only country in Europe, apart from Romania, that considers pilotage to be a free market, and the fact that we have experimented with it in Denmark has, to put it mildly, not had any positive effect on the ports in particular.

We have noted, among other things, that prices have increased by 18% on average between 2014 and 2017, and for some ports up to 40% over the same period. Our proposal is therefore that 2020 should be a transition year, where we define the future framework and keep prices stable.

In addition, 2020 will also be another year where we will be talking about shore power, especially for cruise ships. The pressure will increase on the industry to provide shore power solutions, but ports cannot manage the establishment of shore power alone because the technology is costly and because not all cruise ships are ready for it yet. Therefore, we will spend 2020 looking more towards Norway and Germany, where the public sector has contributed in various ways to the establishment of shore power systems and is therefore ahead of us in Denmark.

All that remains is to wish you all a Happy New Year!