Development trend and path for green cruise port to break out the encirclement

By Ye Xinliang & Sun Ruihong & Liu Mengmeng

Development trend and path for green cruise port to break out the encirclement

By Ye Xinliang & Sun Ruihong & Liu Mengmeng

Currently, the United States, Europe and other western developed countries attach great importance to environmental protection related to the cruise port, and have made big progress in green cruise port construction. For example, the Los Angeles worked together with the Long Beach of the United States to implement the “St. Pello Bay clean air action plan”, New York and New Jersey ports jointly implement the “clean air measures and the port air management plan”, the “guide for green cruise port” issued by Sydney port of Australia and etc. All these actions have greatly improved the port environment quality and enhanced the degree of green of the ports.

The green construction and environmental protection of American cruise ports are in the lead in the world. Several major cruise ports on the west coast, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santiago etc, are among the fi rst to develop green cruise ports, and position themselves as the leaders of sustainable development and environmental protection. Taking Seattle port as an example, it is committed to be the leading port ofsustainable development in North America and have made great achievements in the following four aspects: fi rstly, it starts to develop business partnership and make the port renew natural gas, reducing carbon emission by 70%. Secondly, it has achieved 90% of construction waste recovery. Thirdly, it developed companies with good environmental performance indicators and advanced transportation network such as Uber, Wingz and Lyft. Fourthly, it has installed new promotion information in the gate area, highlighting the sustainable development measures it has adopted.

With a long history and a rich navigational cultural heritage, many ports in Europe have cruise business. The shore-based electricity of the green port of Altona, Germany, is particularly good in pollution control. Marine shore power will continuously provide power to the cruise through the electricity system of the cruise connected with the power supply system on shore, thereby reducing the pollutants produced by oil combustion for continuous power supply when the cruise is anchored. The port of Altona is equipped with variable frequency AC power supply stations to work together with the shore based power equipment, which can freely convert frequency to provide electricity to cruises with different sources of demand, and the power supply equipment is movable to make it convenient for cruise to anchore. Shore power equipment mainly depends on the dock or city power grid. The shore power device of Altona's international port is connected with the main power grid of Hamburg City power grid to generate electricity, the current through the frequency converter can convert frequency to supply power for berthing cruises.

The British government attaches great importance to environmental protection of the cruise port. The control and management department of Liverpool port monitors the environmental pollution at any time and take charge of maritime emergencies. The ports provide environmental protection and emergency plans to the port authority. The port tries to exert the highest scientif i c and technological standards, prevent and control all kinds of pollution, and be environment friendly.

Australia is also very concerned about the environmental problems posed by cruise ships. Apart from introducing relevant laws to require cruise ships to reduce sulfur emissions and carbon emissions, Australia also promotes the construction of green ports and sustainable development. The port of Sydney issued "the guide for green cruise ports " requires special attention be given to water health and the improvement of staff and public awareness of environmental protection, positioning the port of Sydney in the forefront of the world port industry, being the leader in the green cruise port construction.

The global green port conference holds assembly every year and gathers together the port authority, terminal operators, shipping companies, logistics enterprises to discuss the latest sustainable and environmental protection practice, in order to more effectively reduce the carbon footprint on the environment and consider more sensitive decisions for the environment. With the increasing growth of cruise tourism, and the increase of attention on the impact of cruise development on the environment, the eleventh global green port conference in 2016 held special session on cruise to discuss environmental issues brought by cruise development, aiming to promote the port environmental protection policy by emphasizing innovation of equipment and technology.