Energy Consumption and Carbon Footprint of the Port of Sines According to the Ghg Protocol

To reduce the environmental impact of the maritime industry, international actions have been established since the adoption of the first International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil in 1954. Among these actions is the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions from shipping, including ports. The purpose of this study is to calculate the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the Port of Sines for the period 2018-2022, considering the diversity of activities at its terminals and modes of transport, as a first step towards achieving this decarbonization. For this purpose, the calculation methodology has been based on the three scopes defined in the Greenhouse Gases Protocol. The Port of Sines is representative of Portugal's maritime industry. Presently, it has five maritime terminals and other services managed by different concessionaires. The diversity of its operations makes the calculation methodology distinctive, and by providing a detailed assessment of this calculation, it fills a knowledge and information gap related to the decarbonization of multi-terminal and multimodal maritime ports. The main conclusion of the study is that, considering 2018 as the baseline, a non-linear relationship is shown between the independent variables (number of ships and total annual cargo) and the dependent variables (total energy consumed and carbon footprint), and different consumption and emission patterns among its terminals. This indicates that the measures to achieve decarbonization should be differentiated based on the logistical efficiency and typology of each terminal.