Discounted vessel charges serve as incentives
The Port of Turku has encouraged shipping companies to take the environment into account by granting environmental discounts on vessel charges. The current discounts have been tied to the nitrogen oxide emissions of the vessel, by which the Port aimed at guiding the shipping companies to introduce technology for reducing the emissions.
With regard to the future, the Port of Turku considered for a long time expanding the environmental discounts directed at vessel traffic. For that purpose the Port of Turku commissioned a background study on the environmental discount systems used in the ports of the Baltic Sea and Europe and their applicability to the Port of Turku. The key issues looked into included e.g. how the discount system encourages the vessels to take environmental action important to the port, and how the system is verified. The study was carried out by Wega Group Oy by commission of Port of Turku Ltd.
One major change for 2021 is the criteria for environmental rebates for ships. In the future, environmental discounts will also be based on the Clean Shipping Index ratings commonly used in Sweden. The CSI rating is broader than the environmental discount we used previously based solely on the ship’s nitrogen emissions. Thus, the CSI classification makes it possible to look at the environmental performance of ships as a whole.
TEXT: Kari Ahonen
PHOTO: Jarmo Piironen