Environmental policies for ports

their own local dry ports, even if they are importing or exporting goods through a more distant seaport.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES FOR PORTS

Ports generate a diverse set of environmental effects on air, soil, water, and natural habitats. They also produce noise, stench, and dust. This report does not aspire to provide a comprehensive discussion of all pertinent policies. Instead, this section focuses on policies to reduce air pollution generated by ports and ships, given that air pollution is widely regarded as the most important adverse environmental impact of ports (Sornn-Friese et al. 2021).

Ships are significant sources of pollution in port cities, releasing contaminants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and particulate matter, and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Since 2006, the government of China has increased environmental protection by enacting and implementing several policies. The 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–10) called for a 10 percent reduction in total emissions of major pollutants, while the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–15) specified reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides of 8 percent and 10 percent, respectively, and a 17 percent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP. In addition, various environmental laws were made more stringent and enforced more regularly, including the environmental protection law, the marine environmental protection law, the energy conservation law, the circular economy promotion law, and the environmental impact assessment law. Other recent action plans include the air pollution prevention and control action plan (October 2013), the water pollution prevention and control action plan (April 2015), enhanced actions on climate change (June 2015), and an updated air pollution control law (August 2015).

In addition to these general laws on environmental protection and climate change, strategies aimed specifically at regulating emissions from shipping have also been developed. The national Green Port program, which evaluates and certifies ports’ overall environmental performance, was implemented in April 2015. The latest national air quality standards, which took effect in January 2016, tightened standards for particulate emissions and gave the MoT responsibility for implementing regional emission control zones. The Law on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution added specific requirements for ships, covering fuel quality, engine standards, and the use of shore power. In addition, the MoT laid out strategies for controlling ship and port emissions in its Specialized Action Plan of Ship and Port Pollution Prevention and Control from 2015 to 2020, which defines specific goals and actions for the 2015–20 period and sets up domestic emission control zones.

Under the Green Port program, China has adopted green technologies and management measures. These include the following:

Green port standards. Standards by which to evaluate and rate green port performance are being implemented.

Use of shore power. Berthed ships are required to use shore power to reduce emissions. The Specialized Action Plan of Ship and Port Pollution Prevention and Control from 2015 to 2020 called for 90 percent of China’s major ports to provide shore power for berthed ships, and 50 percent of terminals of all types