PROMARES: Final conference in Trieste
“Green and Smart Ports in the Adriatic-Ionian Region. The contribution of the European territorial cooperation between Italy, Croatia and Slovenia”, this is the title of the conference organised by the Port Network Authority System of the Eastern Adriatic Sea in cooperation with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and under the auspices of the European Macro-Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR) that was held on 8 June 2022 at the MIB – Trieste School of Management.
The aim of the meeting was to systematise best practices among the partners of the three countries in the environmental field and to foster an integrated and sustainable approach to solving shared problems. In recent years, the ports of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia have been working together to improve their decarbonisation and digitalisation capacities through a number of EU-funded projects.
On this occasion project PROMARES held its final conference and presented its outputs and results, resulting in a fruitful exchange of experiences and cross-fertilisation between EU-funded projects CLEAN BERTH, SUSPORT and DIGSEA.
Among the other speakers were Michiel Nijboer from Royal Haskoning DHV, who presented the results of a recent study on the options that ports have to improve their environmental performance, Mikael Lind from the Research Institute of Sweden and author of the handbook Maritime Informatics, who illustrated how the digitisation of ports can promote energy transition, and Alain Baron from the European Commission, who discussed EU strategies and policies in this field.
Today, ports play an essential role in the transport logistics system, constituting an important factor for the growth of the economy and employment. It should be noted, however, that while maritime transport is the most sustainable way of transporting goods, port operations also have an impact on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Another aspect to consider is the fragmentation of the supply chain, which can hinder the realisation of the full economic potential of the territories involved. On this point, digitisation can facilitate cooperation between actors in the supply chain, achieving environmental sustainability goals.
At the end of the event, the representatives of the ports of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia signed a joint protocol for the establishment of a system of cross-border cooperation in the field of decarbonisation and digitalisation of the port sector.