Consumers should help bear the cost of cleaning up port pollution, a leading industry expert has suggested.
"All consumers buy imported goods and should pay to reduce the environmental costs," James Cannon, president of Energy Futures, Inc., told the SustainableShipping Forum in Singapore last week.
US ports will have to pay $1.5 billion per year through 2020 to clean up pollution, according to Cannon.
He estimated that levying a $30 per TEU charge would help ports raise $1.3 billion a year for that purpose, but would add less than 1% to the cost of consumer goods.
According to Cannon, there are now about 5,000 premature deaths per year from port pollution - chiefly from diesel fumes given off by ships, trucks and trains carrying goods to and from them - in the United States alone.
"The image now is 'Ports kill'," he said.
Yet ports are one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the United States. US container demand has quintupled since 1980 and will double again by 2020, said Cannon. Currently, over 45 million TEUs, or more than 20 million containers, are handled every year at US ports.
"That's the problem US ports are facing - most cannot expand without finding air pollution offsets," Cannon said.
He recommended the use of alternative fuels and technologies as the "best long-term option" for reducing air pollution, noting that "natural gas is the clear leader among alternatives to diesel".
Ports should also develop and implement a clean-up strategy, Cannon said.
"That would set uniform minimum pollution control targets and provide stature in international negotiations."
US ports will have to pay $1.5 billion per year through 2020 to clean up pollution, according to Cannon.
He estimated that levying a $30 per TEU charge would help ports raise $1.3 billion a year for that purpose, but would add less than 1% to the cost of consumer goods.
According to Cannon, there are now about 5,000 premature deaths per year from port pollution - chiefly from diesel fumes given off by ships, trucks and trains carrying goods to and from them - in the United States alone.
"The image now is 'Ports kill'," he said.
Yet ports are one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the United States. US container demand has quintupled since 1980 and will double again by 2020, said Cannon. Currently, over 45 million TEUs, or more than 20 million containers, are handled every year at US ports.
"That's the problem US ports are facing - most cannot expand without finding air pollution offsets," Cannon said.
He recommended the use of alternative fuels and technologies as the "best long-term option" for reducing air pollution, noting that "natural gas is the clear leader among alternatives to diesel".
Ports should also develop and implement a clean-up strategy, Cannon said.
"That would set uniform minimum pollution control targets and provide stature in international negotiations."