The European Union, with the Green Deal, adopted clear commitments regarding the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, ports play an important role as they are an essential component within merchant shipping and passenger global flows. Being aware of this, the Port Authority of Málaga launched the Green Port Initiative, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and fight against climate change and global warming. The project aimed to achieve significant improvements: lower the use of fossil fuels to have better air quality towards the port environment, energy efficiency and use of renewable energy: using sustainable energy sources generated on-site, and tree barriers to be placed in transition areas between the port and the city. This commitment is framed within the SDGs and, in particular, the Sustainable Transport Strategy in Ports.
The Port Authority implemented this initiative as an answer to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It faced this responsibility by means of innovative concepts such as low-emission energy supply and production, sustainable alternatives of on-shore supply systems or sustainable logistics and port operations among others, to provide an answer for the necessary improvements.
The project is therefore characterised by an innovative environment. It implies:
- the application of advanced and innovative technologies that are ready for commercial deployment;
- the digitisation of the port operations in different areas, for example the use of applications of algorithms towards the energy transition;
- lowering emissions by the integration of renewable energies.