El Port de Barcelona has placed resilience and energy transition at the center of the European debate during the annual conference of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), held on May 7 and 8 in Gdansk (Poland). The meeting, under the motto ‘Competitiveness as a driver of resilience’, brings together the main port and political leaders of the continent in a context marked by geopolitical instability and tensions in supply chains.
The president of the Port de Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell, accompanied by the deputy general director of Innovation and Business Strategy, Santiago Garcia Milà, and by the director of Institutional Relations, Ingrid Boqué, participated in the first executive round table of the meeting, together with Boudewijn Siemons, CEO of the port of Rotterdam; Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, and Benoît Rochet, CEO of Haropa Port. All of them agreed on the need to reinforce the strategic role of ports in an increasingly uncertain global scenario.
During his speech, Carbonell warned of the chain effect generated by international crises on the global logistics system. “Disruptions cause a domino effect on a global scale, which makes it essential to reinforce the resilience and anticipation capacity of ports,” he stated. The president of the Port de Barcelona also highlighted the importance of guaranteeing service continuity for customers and protecting local markets, at a time when ports play an increasingly relevant role in Europe’s energy and logistics security.
The weight of renewable energies
In this area, he highlighted Spain’s competitive advantage thanks to the weight of renewable energies, which already exceed 55% of the electricity mix. “Ports are well positioned to lead the production of green fuels. In this context, the energy transition must be addressed taking into account the energy trilemma: the balance between sustainability, security of supply and affordability,” he assured.
José Alberto Carbonell also pointed out that Europe’s decarbonization will require very significant investments, especially in energy infrastructure, and will consolidate ports as true hubs of innovation and technological development.
Algeciras calls for redefining the ETS
For his part, the president of the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA), Gerardo Landaluce, who also participated in the ESPO conference, of which he is vice president, spoke during the round table in which progress in meeting decarbonization objectives without losing competitiveness was analyzed. In this regard, he warned: “It is necessary to regulate from a strategic and global perspective because traffic can be recovered, but investments cannot,” referring to the flight of investments already being caused by the implementation of the ETS in European ports.
In 2026, in its third year of application, the EU plans to review the maritime ETS.
For this reason, the president of the APBA has stressed that “now is the time to seize the opportunity to properly define the scope of application of the directive” that obliges the fleet to pay for its emissions, but only when they dock at EU ports, which is causing diversions of calls to third countries, as has been demonstrated by the studies carried out by the EU-ETS Observatory.
Gerardo Landaluce has also made clear the commitment of the port of Algeciras to decarbonisation, detailing projects such as the deployment of OPS at the docks, with an investment of more than 92 million euros; or the Green Energy Hub initiative, which encompasses the various public and private initiatives being implemented in the Bay of Algeciras to produce, distribute and use green fuels.
