At the delta of the Rhine and Meuse in the Netherlands, on land largely reclaimed from the North Sea, the Port of Rotterdam stands as Europe's biggest freight hub – by some measures handling almost as much cargo as all UK ports combined. Its horizon is dominated by cranes, bulk carriers and container stacks, the visible parts of a vast energy and chemicals hub. Five refineries, including Shell's largest in Europe, process hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil a day, while a tight cluster of chemical plants feeds factories across the continent.
But that scale comes with a colossal carbon footprint. According to research by CE Delft, the fossil fuels flowing through the port are ultimately linked to around 600 megatonnes of CO2 a year – many times more than the CO2 output of the Netherlands' biggest airport, Schiphol. Rotterdam's own industrial cluster currently emits about 29 million tonnes of CO2 a year, roughly half of the Netherlands' domestic emissions, says Mark van Dijk, head of external relations at the Port of Rotterdam Authority. "It's not good," he admits.
“A lawsuit demands the Port of Rotterdam cuts its reliance on fossil fuels, as its emissions dwarf most countries.”
Now pressure is building for change. Environmental group Advocates for the Future has brought a lawsuit arguing that the Port of Rotterdam Authority is not doing enough to phase out fossil-based energy. The lawsuit demands a concrete plan to wind down the coal, oil and gas flows whose emissions dwarf those of most countries.
The Port Authority, however, says it does have a plan. It has set targets to cut its own direct and purchased energy emissions by 90% between 2019 and 2030. The strategy includes developing a hydrogen hub where companies can test new fuels, investing in onshore power so ships can plug into the grid instead of burning fuel at berth, and supporting bunkering of alternatives such as LNG, biofuels and methanol. There is also an effort to mitigate CO2 emissions: the Porthos project will pipe industrial emissions offshore for storage in depleted gas fields. "In the short term we're focusing on CCS – capturing CO2 and storing it in depleted gas fields," van Dijk says.
But for the activists, that is not enough. "A state-owned enterprise should not just be managing the flow of fossil fuels," argues Maikel van Wissen, director of Advocates for the Future. He insists the port has a responsibility to use its clout to speed up the shift to cleaner operations. Whether Rotterdam – a port built on fossil fuels – can ever truly become green is the question now being tested in court.
