Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

modes were 581million tones of which inward freight traffic accounted for 62 per
cent and 38 per cent outward freight traffic.
In addition, each year around 50 million international and domestic passenger
journeys are made through UK ports. In 2007, there were 25 million international sea
passenger journeys to and from the UK, and 24 million Ro-ro passengers on short sea
routes, and 20 million on inter-island services such as the Isle of Wight and Scottish
islands.
As for all other transport sectors, ports activities are subjected to several EU and
international rules on environmental protection (such as on birds protection, water or
air quality). The debate within the ETF TRUST discussions covered the future ports
policy also involved environmental questions, and was particularly focused on the
relationship between the growth of port activities and the consequences it has on
environment. The increasing flows of maritime transport and the development of
logistics, require ports in some cases to expand, in other to rethink their role and to
become nodal points within an inter-modal transport chain.
In the past port activities and environmental protection were often mentioned as
irreconcilable the one with the other, the current debate is more oriented at looking for
solutions which satisfy both the need for increased capacity and the need to protect
the environment. One of the points agreed by the ETF Dockers Section during the
TRUST workshop on ports was the possibility of coupling both the above mentioned
objectives: besides developing their activities in ports and thus being directly exposed
to air pollution from ships in the form of NOx, SOx and particulate matter, port
workers are also citizens living in port neighbourhoods and aiming at living in
socially and environmentally sustainable areas. A first step to be considered is that
port expansion should be only considered as long as it is strictly necessary, since there
are some cases where alternative solutions can be found, such as redesigning or
adapting the existing infrastructures. In any case, a clarification of the application of
the current environmental rules to ports should be considered.
Furthermore, the relationship between ports and local communities in the hinterland
has to be considered in order to overcome possible controversies. Although ports
generate employment and economic benefits for the local communities, the industry
does not have a positive or environmentally friendly image amongst the neighbouring
communities. The TRUST debate highlighted that the current EU legislation does not
take into consideration recent positive developments in terms of environmental
performance in the sector, or in parts of it, and that there is no need to start from
scratch. In many EU regions and ports in fact different forms of dialogue are already
in place, which led to shared and balanced solutions, which could certainly be spread
as best practices. Also at EU level dialogue is in place and some valid instruments
have already been developed by certain stakeholders, which could be used as a basis
to develop further measures.
Finally, the TRUST debate highlighted that the coordination between the
environmental policy measures applying to the various transport modes should be
enhanced, especially in the light of the expansion of logistics, which require a closer
connection and coherence between the various transport modes, in order to minimize
the side effects that policies applying to one mode could have on the others. This
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