Rotterdam port to reward clean initiatives

DutchNews, December 5, 2016

Rotterdam port authority is now ready to invest in companies which are actively reducing CO2 emissions or which do not use fossil fuels in production at all, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday.

Rottterdam seaport, the largest in Europe, is also home to one of the continent’s largest petrochemical complexes accounting for 18% of greenhouse gases emitted each year in the Netherlands. In order to meet the requirements of the Paris climate accord, Co2 emissions must be reduced by 90% by 2050, also in the port.

‘When it comes to crucial investment, we are willing to take an active, risk-bearing role in companies striving towards this goal,’ Allard Castelein, director of Rotterdam port authority, told the FD. Until now the port authority has used its annual €200m investment budget largely for infrastructure, like roads and quays. 

‘There’s going to be a change,’ says Castelein, although he did not go into numbers. He said there was considerable freedom over investments agreed by the port’s shareholders, Rotterdam council and the national government. Incentives for new investment could include lower ground rents, the paper noted. 

A case in point is a possible €180m methanol plant being developed by a group headed by Akzo Nobel. ‘We are willing to buy a stake of 20% in the plant if it comes to Rotterdam,’ says Castelein. The port authority is also looking into a pipeline to transfer surplus industrial heat to the nearby Westland greenhouse area and to The Hague. 

But Castelein will not go so far as to ban companies with high CO2 emissions in the future. ‘Cleaner and more efficient production here will contribute to the global reduction of Co2 emissions,’ he told the paper. 

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