Singapore, LA and Long Beach ports to establish green, digital corridor

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Port of Los Angeles (POLA), and Port of Long Beach (POLB), with the support of C40 Cities, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a green and digital shipping corridor.

As informed, the corridor is to be established between Singapore and the San Pedro Bay port complex to support the decarbonisation of the maritime industry and improve efficiencies through digitalisation.

The MoU follows from an earlier announcement in November 2022, that MPA, POLA, POLB and C40 had begun discussions to establish a green and digital shipping corridor between Singapore and the San Pedro Bay port complex.

C40 will act as the facilitator of the green shipping corridor, providing support to the cities, ports, and their corridor partners by coordinating, convening, facilitating, and providing communications support.

“The signing of this MoU signals our collective will to pool our resources, technical insights, industry and research networks to deliver scalable green as well as digital corridor solutions to help the maritime industry attain the 2050 emission reduction targets expected of the International Maritime Organization and help spur the development of green growth opportunities,” Teo Eng Dih, Chief Executive of MPA, said.

The corridor aims to support the transition to low- and zero-emission fuels by ships calling at Singapore and the San Pedro Bay port complex.

Specifically, the partners will work to facilitate the supply and adoption of these fuels and explore the necessary infrastructure and regulations for bunkering.

In addition to identifying and collaborating on pilot and demonstration projects, the MoU aims to identify digital shipping solutions and develop standards and best practices for green ports and the bunkering of alternative marine fuels, including sharing experiences at international platforms such as IMO.

“No single port or organization can tackle the challenge of decarbonizing the supply chain alone, no matter how innovative their technology or robust their efforts. The establishment of this green shipping corridor between the San Pedro Bay Port Complex and Singapore will prove to be a living, breathing testament to the power of global collaboration,” added Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. 

“Curbing greenhouse gases from international shipping is essential to fight global warming,” commented Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero.

“Creating this green corridor with our partner ports and C40 Cities is part of our strategy to coalesce all of our efforts here and beyond to help advance our goals for cleaner marine fuels for oceangoing vessels, improve efficiencies for the global movement of goods, and to achieve a carbon-neutral future.”

“Delivering science-based, rapid and concrete action on shipping emissions is crucial to ensure the shipping sector decarbonisation is aligned with the goal of keeping global heating below 1.5°C,” concluded C40 Cities Executive Director Mark Watts.