ABL rolls out emission tracking software for seaport industry

March 11, 2022, by Ajsa Habibic

Energy and marine consultancy AqualisBraemar LOC (ABL) has developed a software that allows ports and harbours to track their emission profiles, calculate the cost of their carbon footprint and identify a roadmap ahead for sustainable development.

The digital solution called emiTr is based on Port Emissions Toolkit and enables ports to understand the complex nature of their emissions’ profile, so they can take decisive action in line with national and international reduction targets.

According to ABL’s maritime director Paul Martin, the emiTr provides a digital inventory of the port’s emissions, mapping out both direct and indirect sources, and identifies the profile of individual emitters.

As explained, data is uploaded into the software, where the amount of pollutants and greenhouse gases emitted through the port’s operations are calculated. The system also retrieves the live market price of carbon determined by UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) and uses it to assign a monetary value to the CO2e emissions.

The portal identifies and calculates three different scopes of emitters – direct emissions under the port’s control, indirect emissions and indirect emissions which are not under the direct control of the port.

“Although currently there is no legislation that specifically requires ports to reduce their emissions, in anticipation and as part of national plans, ports must start now to understand their profile. emiTr will help ports and other maritime facilities such as shipyards, offshore wind sites, and even the oil and gas industry, to get ahead of the curve and identify their carbon footprint, so they can take informed action”, Martin explains.

The solution was designed in collaboration with Shoreham Port, which sees it as important data to understand the impact it makes, and plans to use this data to inform decisions in the future to reduce pollution across the port’s footprint.