Greening of European Sea Ports - Final Report

The report addresses the environmental challenges faced by European sea ports and aims to provide guidance to smaller ports for improving their environmental performance while achieving sustainability goals, through experiences gained by implementing noteworthy green initiatives in practice. Larger ports possess significant advantages in terms of financial resources, risk tolerance and organisational capacity. They often have the means to invest in innovative solutions and actively participate in research and development projects, leading to co-funded pilot implementation of green initiatives. They typically have more skilled personnel, stronger influence, and stakeholder leverage, which position them better to lead the way in sustainability efforts. Finally, larger ports often form robust collaborations to drive collective action towards sustainable goals. Smaller ports face unique challenges stemming from, typically, limited resources and risk aversion. They often prioritise mature solutions, relying on tested practices to mitigate potential risks. They may lack internal expertise, requiring guidance and capacity-building programmes to navigate the selection and implementation of green practices. Also, they require financial and technical support, particularly as they may underutilise available funding mechanisms and have limited participation in R&D programmes. They may benefit from partnerships with other ports and stakeholders to create synergies and gain experience from their lessons learned, to boost their capacity to implement green practices