Major Ports weighs incentives to ships to motivate “green culture”

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways is pushing the 12 State-Owned Ports to introduce incentives to ships, terminal operators, and trucks to motivate “green culture” as part of a plan to decarbonise the sector and meetclimatechangegoals.

Ships (export-import and coastal) calling at Major Ports which are using cleaner fuel, as compared to the conventional fossil fuel, and vessels having shore power reception facility to accommodate the full running load at berth, including cargo handling equipment, may be incentivized through queue priority or rebate in berth dues, according to the Green PortGuidelinesissuedbytheMinistry.

Private craft operators at ports using alternate fuel (green fuel) such as methanol, ethanol and hydrogen fuel cell technology may beofferedincentives.

Private operators, stevedores, agents, and exporters-importers runningtheirequipmentandvehicles with green fuel/electric for all its fleet may be identified and recognized through green certification and consideredforincentives.

Truck operators who use green fuels such as CNG/LNG/Hydrogen anditsderivativeorelectricfleetmay be identified and incentivized, the guidelinesstated.

Major Ports shall also ensure that green and sustainability aspects are suitably incorporated into the DPR (Detailed Project Report) while formulating PPP (Public Private Partnership)projects.

Major Ports shall devise suitable mechanism(s) to incentivize the existing PPP concessionaires to adopt greener and carbon neutral designs and procedures in line with the spirit of the Green Port Guidelines,itadded.

Ports are expected to play a key role in contributing towards India’s de-carbonization efforts by adopting green initiatives to meet the pledge made at COP 26 for reaching net-zero emissionby2070.

This will also help in contributing towards moving closer to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which includes obligations on developingresilientinfrastructurefor safe,efficient,andsustainableports.

The Ministry’s de-carbonisation plans include promoting use of renewable energy, reducing air emissions, optimizing water usage, improving solid waste management, andreducingcarbonemissionperton ofcargohandledby30percentby2030 and70percentby2047.

India’s exports to EU worth USD 1.3 bn to be impacted by EU’s deforestation regulation : GTRI

NEW DELHI : Indian exports of productslikecoffee,leatherhidesand paperboard worth USD 1.3 billion annually to the European Union will get impacted due to the deforestation regulation adopted by the EU earlier this week, a report by economic think tank GTRI said on Thursday. Within threeweeksofintroducingthecarbon border tax, the European Union Council on May 16 adopted the European Union Deforestation-Free ProductsRegulation(EU-DR).

The Global Trade Research Initiative(GTRI)saidthattheEU-DR appears to prioritise protecting its own agricultural sector and promoting exports, making imports more difficult as it is a trade barrier disguisedasagreenmeasure.

The regulation covers cattle, buffalo, the meat of bovine animals, preparations, Oil cake, soya beans, palm oil, cocoa bean, powder, chocolate, coffee, leather hide, skin, paper, paperboard, wood, wood articles, wood pulp, boards andwoodfurniture.

The exporters now have to ensure that these products have been grown on land, which has not been deforested after December 31, 2020. Thenewruleswillapplytolargefirms after 18 months and small firms after 24 months. Thus, the timeline for large firms is December 2024 and for smallfirmsisJune2025.

“EU DR will adversely affect India’s exports to the EU of the value of US 1.3 billion (2022 data). The significant products affected and their export value to the EU are Coffee (USD 435.4 million), Leather hides, skin, preparations (USD 83.5 million), Oil cake (USD 174.5 million), Paper, paperboard (USD 250.2 million) and Wood furniture (USD 334.6million),” thereportsaid.

For the products covered under the carbon tax and EU-DR, the EU’s share in India’s global exports is 23.6 per cent, it said, adding the regulation poses challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises, ascompliancecostsandduediligence requirementsmayexcludethemfrom globalagriculturaltrade.

“Carbon tax would hit trade in industrial products and EUDR would hittradeinagriproducts.Bothplanto cover all products in the near future. EU’s assault on trade is near total,” GTRI Co-Founder Ajay Srivastava said.

The European Union (EU) claims it wants to reduce its contribution to global deforestation by promoting ‘deforestation-free’ products, but this is seen as a deceptive narrative, the reportsaid.

“The EU itself has extensively expanded agricultural land by cutting down primary forests, which now accountforlessthan0.7percentofits total forest area, compared to the global average of 33 per cent. Many other countries, facing the need to convert primary forests into cultivable land to feed growing populations, have a much larger shareofprimaryforest,”itadded.