The IAPH working groups on Clean Marine Fuels (CMF) and Port Readiness Levels (PRL) met in Marseille on 18-20 May. Hosted by the Port of Marseille-Fos, 20 experts from the ports of Açu, Antwerp-Bruges, Amsterdam, Barcelona, HAROPA, Marseille-Fos, North Sea Port, Rotterdam and Seattle, as well as Transport Canada, the International Chamber of Shipping and Ernst & Young, gathered to advance the working groups’ agendas on preparing world ports for bunkering and transporting low- and zero-carbon fuels safely and efficiently. The meetings took place back-to-back with the MEDports Forum 2026 (20-21 May), allowing for synergies and exchange between CMF/PRL and the Mediterranean ports. These were the final meetings attended by Cees Boon, sector coordinator at the harbourmaster policy department of the Port of Rotterdam; Cees’ contribution has been instrumental to the development of the CMF and PRL tools. The working group members and IAPH staff thanked Cees for his hard work and commitment, and IAPH managing director Patrick Verhoeven offered Cees a miniature replica of ‘The Docker’ – a sculpture by the 19th century Belgian artist Constantin Meunier – as a token of appreciation.
