The Transition to Sustainable Shipping and Ports
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 21508
Special Issue Editor
Interests: resource and energy economics and econometrics; sustainable development and innovation; interdisciplinary approaches for sustainable development; climate change modeling and policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Seas and oceans affect our daily lives, being not only a critical source of food, energy, and resources but also providing the majority of Europe's trade routes, thereby supporting jobs and national economies and serving as a highway for transportation of goods and people. Ports are places where multiple systems collide (shipping, energy, waste, tourism, and other transport). Ports can either be emissions hotspots or hubs able to drive enormous change. To achieve this potential, this Special Issue seeks papers that combine a systems innovation approach with multi-annual expertise on blue growth, maritime research and entrepreneurship in order to co-design a port innovations portfolio and financial tools that will drive the sustainable transition of both sectors of shipping and ports. The IPCC report explicitly refers to the need for “rapid far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” Incremental changes will not be enough. What is needed now is a fundamental transformation of economic, social, and financial systems that will trigger an exponential change in strengthening social, economic, health, and environmental resilience. We need big thinking and big changes. System innovation and transitions thinking can help and calls for intense public participation.
Through a demand-led approach, working with organisations willing to take on the responsibility of acting as ‘problem owners’ and committed to zero-net emissions, resilient futures, deep demonstrations progress in tightly designed, iterative phases - steps of rolling out systems innovation-as-a-service, aiming at the identification of the key actors to be involved, current status, vision, innovation needs, sustainable financial planning and ultimately at the alignment of all actors able to drive systems transition to a low-carbon emissions future. It is a circular approach in innovation implementation with a final goal the holistic change of the port and the shipping sector to Sustainability. Four research projects that are granted by the European Commission are Deep Demonstrations for Zero-Net Emissions in the port of Piraeus, Oceans of Tomorrow (H20CEAN, TROPOS, MERMAID), which together with two UN SDSN Greece Initiatives, the 4-Seas Initiative and the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Shipping, focus on developing technologically and financially efficient, environmentally sustainable, and socio-economically acceptable paths to sustainability.
Prof. Dr. Phoebe Koundouri
Guest Editor
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