One of the solutions hailed – and now tested – to reduce emissions and relieve congestion in ports, is to make more use of transhipment and countries’ river networks. In China, this recently helped to ease the burden on Shanghai’s port while being in lockdown. In turn, this was an economic boost for smaller river ports further inlands that benefited from the rerouted cargo. In Europe, river networks are constantly expanded to increase the amount of barge transport. Also, the smaller ships used for this are ideal candidates to trial alternative fuel solutions. However, without the appropriate upgrade of infrastructure – such as dredged waterways – this will not be a sustainable solution to reduce emissions but could further clog river arteries. This was recently seen in the Danube river around Romania to get grain shipments out of the war-blocked Ukraine. So, do ports support this side-arm of maritime transport enough or should they look further inland to build capacity of river ports? Have your say here.
