Swedish and Finnish ports collaborate on environmental services
Three Finnish TEN-T core ports - Turku, Naantali and HaminaKotka – in cooperation with Ports of Stockholm and Viking Line are investing EUR 8,100,000 in measures to reduce the environmental impact from shipping in the Baltic Sea, The Baltic Ports Organization said in its press release.
These four ports, together with shipping company Viking Line, met in Turku in late October to start off an EU-funded joint project aiming to improve the maritime links between Sweden and Finland.
The joint project includes preparations and construction of waste water reception facilities and installations to enable ro-ro and ro-pax ferries to connect to onshore power supply. It also includes planning for reception of scrubber sludge and LNG bunkering.
Viking Line, operating between Turku and Stockholm, is aiming to develop a safe, efficient and environmental adopted ro-ro passenger ferry concept to operate between Finland and Sweden.
The shipping industry is in a transition phase towards becoming more sustainable, due to stricter environmental legislation. The Baltic Sea is designated as a special area under Annex IV of MARPOL where stringent regulations for discharge of waste water will apply from 2016 for new passenger vessels and 2018 for existing passenger vessels.
“By investing in environmental services, our ports create the possibility for our customers not only to comply with existing environmental regulations, but also to go beyond legislations. These are important measures to create a sustainable maritime link between Finland and Sweden.” says Christian Ramberg, CEO, Port of Turku.
The project runs until the end of December 2016 and has been granted EU-funding from the Connecting Europe Facility programme up to a maximum of EUR 2,650,000.
