Tag: Pollution

Green Shipping Community Workshop Draws A Crowd

The nonprofit organizations Pacific Environment and C40 Cities, in cooperation with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, hosted a Green Shipping Community Workshop today. The community event drew 90 participants and provided information on global and local shipping sector decarbonization initiatives, showcased a panel discussion with local leaders about their vision for a cleaner and greener port, and facilitated a question and answer session for the community to engage with the panelists. 

San Pedro Bay Ports’ 2022 Air Emissions Inventories reveal increased planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution from pre-pandemic levels

This month, the United States’ largest port complex, comprised of the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and Port of Long Beach (POLB), released their annual air emissions inventories for 2022, tracking air and climate pollutants across all logistics sectors of the ports, including ocean-going vessels, harbor craft, cargo handling equipment, locomotives and heavy-duty vehicles.

Cargo ship port in Malaysia
Port of Long Beach Leaders Tout Climate-Heating LNG Ship during Hottest Month in Recorded History

Pasha Hawaii’s second liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship, the MV Janet Marie, made its first voyage from Long Beach to Honolulu over the weekend. Leaders celebrated this ship, overlooking the fact that this decision will lock Long Beach into decades of additional fossil-fuel pollution during a dire moment of climate emergency.

Sun setting over smoggy shipping container harbor.
Ports for People Applauds Los Angeles and Tokyo, Yokohama Green Shipping Corridors

The Port of Los Angeles has entered into separate Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with the Port of Tokyo and the Port of Yokohama to formalize their collaboration on sustainability and environmental issues at the ports. The MOUs were finalized during the 2023 California Japan Clean Energy Trade Mission.

Busy cargo container storage harbor.
State of California Signals Need for Additional Measures to Tackle Toxic Pollution from Ocean-Going Vessels

Today, California’s chief climate and air pollution regulator released a report on the status of the state’s world-first regulation to end in-port pollution from fossil fuel vessels. The report by California Air Resources Board (CARB) shows the continued success of the state’s in-port pollution regulation in protecting California port and coastal communities from significant fossil fuel pollution by requiring certain vessels to plug into shorepower while docked at ports.

Busy cargo container storage harbor.
Cargo ships are notoriously dirty. A new bill aims to clean them up.

The Clean Shipping Act, proposed this week in Congress, would curb CO2 pollution from shipping and accelerate the adoption of nascent technologies.

Parent and child overlooking a busy cargo container harbor.
Port communities affected by pollution

Study finds 3.8% average methane slip from LNG carrier on roundtrip from US to Belgium. But about 8% of all LNG sent to the smaller generator engines ends up in the atmosphere.

Parked cargo container ship next to a port neighborhood.
‘This Is terrifying’: Explosion at Texas gas plant spotlights threat of LNG industry

“We shouldn’t have to live in fear just so gas executives like Michael Smith can get rich,” said one local resident, referring to Freeport LNG’s CEO.

Parked cargo container ship next to a port neighborhood.
Methane At Sea: Finding the invisible climate killer, so-called “green” (LNG) ships

Infrared images show unburned methane – a potent greenhouse gas – being released from supposedly ‘green’ LNG ships, a damning new investigation by Transport & Environment (T&E) shows. European politicians are playing with fire in their support for LNG, says T&E, with methane over 80 times more climate warming than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

Sun setting over smoggy shipping container harbor.
Editorial: Port pollution is surging. Let regulators do their job to protect public health.

Southern California still suffers the nation’s worst-polluted air but it also has a decades-long record of success in fighting smog, which has been achieved largely through stringent regulation, not by cutting deals with polluters. AQMD leaders have shown with recently adopted rules on oil refineries and warehouse logistics centers that they have the authority and political will to take meaningful action against some of the region’s most powerful industries. They can and should do the same with the ports.