The Medports forum was held on 25 June at the Grand Port of Marseille-Fos on an agenda highlighting the sustainability of port activity: “How will Med ports face the environmental challenge?
After a political introduction under the auspices of the Metropolis and the GPMM, the Forum gave the floor to Patricia Ricard, from the Paul Ricard Institute. She recalled the urgency of taking action and clarified the acceleration of the place of civil society in these constrained political frameworks, the COPs. She welcomed the creation of platforms that, since COP 22 in Marrakech, have made it possible to share research and best practices. She defended the concept of blue economy, which advocates the notion of rupture, unlike green economy, which only offers compensation considered too soft. Finally, she cited two nexuses to be followed fundamentally: the ocean/climate/biodiversity nexus and the water/energy/waste nexus. She concluded by recalling that the key words were agility and complexity in the actions to be undertaken, with ports being in the forefront on climate and waste issues.
The consideration of environmental issues is a subject that is perfectly addressed by the various maritime port actors, manufacturers and equipment manufacturers. The networking of these actors through different mechanisms (MedPorts, AIVP, ESPO, and even AVITEM with a more modest dimension) is fundamental in this context, since the sharing of good practices and expertise means that this largely polluting sector is nowadays declared to be one of the most advanced on the answers to be given to environmental challenges. Research, innovations, laboratory analyses, risk scenarios, simulations of impacts in terms of mortality and morbidity of inhabitants of coastal areas and beyond, alternative roads, new motorisations, societal responses to tourist flows, colossal investments in equipment (ships and dockside machines), human capital training, workshops on regulatory and/or technical themes… actions and examples are not lacking from these actors who have in mind a shared concern: to decarbonize an activity that is too often criticized for its harmfulness and its impact on air quality over very large areas, in view of its development, which will continue, judging by the wishes of the Chinese partners regarding the new Silk Roads.