Itaqui Port makes agreement with Fundación Valenciaport

The Port of Itaqui formalized a contract for technical cooperation last week, with the Port of Valencia Foundation (Fundación Valenciaport), with the aim of drawing up the Decarbonization Plan for the public port of Maranhão. The institution is a global reference in decarbonization programs and the Port of Valencia was one of the first in the world to set a zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

“This partnership is strategic in promoting the necessary advances for continuous improvement in the management of the environment in Itaqui, which is already recognized by ISO 14001:2015. We, together with Fundación Valenciaport, are now going to map our emissions, outline decarbonization targets and determine the priority actions necessary to achieve these goals”, says the president of the Port of Itaqui, Gilberto Lins.

According to the contract, the joint work will begin with an initial mapping of greenhouse gas emissions, covering trucks and vehicles that circulate in the port polygon, ships and all port equipment. Based on this study, the decarbonization plan will be prepared, an instrument that will guide actions and investments based on a more precise, objective and strategic direction.

EMAP – Empresa Maranhense de Administração Portuária –, responsible for managing the Port of Itaqui, has been carrying out, since 2020, its Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory. The company has a Climate Change Program that inventoried gas emissions with a view to reducing or eliminating them. Some actions were adopted, such as replacing the fuel in our vehicles with ethanol and waste is sent to recycling sites, avoiding landfills or incineration – which emit more gases.

“We want to go further, but that requires replacing machines, purchasing electric vehicles and replacing the energy matrix with a cleaner one. All of this will be mapped in the Decarbonization Plan”, explains EMAP’s Environment manager, Luane Lemos.

Advantages of decarbonization

The Port of Itaqui is one of the first public ports in Brazil to have a decarbonization program, aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. The importance for the port sector ranges from the generation of carbon credits to the eventual preparation of infrastructure and operations to respond to climate change.

With an estimated investment of BRL 1.8 million, the agreement with Fundación ValenciaPort aims, with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to integrate the global effort to prevent the planet’s temperature from increasing by more than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. This increase in temperature can lead to a series of changes, such as windstorms, floods, rising sea levels, desertification and reduced biodiversity.

As a signatory of the UN Global Compact – United Nations – Porto do Itaqui is doing its part to comply with SDG 13 (referring to climate change) – one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.

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