June 12, 2025 • 35 mins
Decarbonizing BC’s Ports and Shipping
Maritime shipping moves over 80% of the world’s goods—and contributes nearly 3% of global carbon emissions. But decarbonizing a system that runs 24/7 across oceans is no easy task, especially when clean energy infrastructure is scarce at sea.
On this episode of Cleantech Forward, we’re exploring how decarbonizing ports and shipping in British Columbia isn’t just a challenge––it’s a major opportunity for our province and our country to lead in clean fuels, sustainable infrastructure, and global collaboration. Host Jeanette Jackson chats with Juvarya Veltkamp from C40’s Green Ports Forum, and Robin Silvester, former CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, about BC’s role in shaping a cleaner shipping future.
From shore-powered cruise ships to battery-electric tugboats and international green shipping corridors, discover how BC’s ports are becoming launchpads for innovation—and what it’ll take to cut emissions at scale.
About the Guests
Juvarya Veltkamp
Juvarya Veltkamp is a recognized leader in climate strategy and impact, specializing in market transformation and global collaboration to accelerate investment in sustainable cities and ports. With nearly 30 years of experience spanning real estate, local government, social enterprise, and impact investment, Juvarya has driven large-scale green economic development initiatives and policy innovation. She led Vancouver’s green economy strategy for a decade, helped launch British Columbia’s $500-million public impact fund at InBC, and advanced climate governance through the Canada Climate Law Initiative at the University of British Columbia.
Currently, Juvarya leads C40’s Green Ports Forum––a global alliance of ports and cities collaborating to decarbonize supply chains and promote sustainable trade. She also advises Realize Capital Partners and volunteers on the leadership team for Vancouver Maritime Centre for Climate.
Robin Silvester
Robin Silvester is a board member and advisor focusing on infrastructure, the supply chain, and energy transition. He was CEO of Vancouver Fraser Port Authority from 2009 to 2023. During this time Robin led the port through a period of unprecedented growth both in investment and in cargo handled. This helped drive more than 40% growth in international trade through Canada’s largest trade gateway.
The port authority also set, and actively advanced, a vision to make the Port of Vancouver the world’s most sustainable port–– a port that is a global leader at delivering economic prosperity through trade, protecting the environment, and enabling thriving local communities. This included establishing internationally recognized environmental programmes and achieving ground-breaking agreements with multiple First Nations in south-western BC.
About Foresight Canada
Foresight Canada helps the world do more with less, sustainably. As Canada's largest cleantech innovation and adoption accelerator, we connect public and private sectors to the world’s best clean technologies, de-risking and simplifying the adoption of innovative solutions that improve productivity, profitability, and economic competitiveness, all while addressing today’s most urgent climate challenges.
We don’t just accelerate innovation. We are innovation. From humble roots in Vancouver, Canada, Foresight has rapidly scaled into a national, globally connected non-profit, driving the adoption of sustainable innovation in major industries worldwide, working with 200+ industry partners and actively engaging with 145+ federal, provincial, and municipal governments, and Indigenous rights holders.
Since 2013, Foresight has supported 1580+ ventures, 150+ industry partners, and 300+ investor firms to deploy $2.31B in capital, achieve $570M in revenues, and create 9,430+ high-paying jobs. Our domestic and international engagement includes working in collaboration with 2,000+ rights holders and partners.
In the world we’re building, sustainability isn't a buzzword. It’s a fundamental driver of economic growth and prosperity, for people and planet. Find out how we’re redefining acceleration at foresightcac.com, and join the conversation on LinkedIn.
Credits
Host: Jean
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
So cruise ships have been plugging into BC Hydro since 2009 using clean hydro powerinstead of diesel when they're alongside Canada Place.
That's steadily expanding.
So imagine if you just stop every traffic light you went to, you could plug in and stopthe engine in your car.
It's kind of like that.
The cruise ships tend to be there for eight to 10 hours and they can plug into clean powerwhile they're alongside.
(00:31):
Moving goods around the world by ship accounts for nearly 3 % of global carbon emissions.
On land, we are making good progress to decarbonize transportation, but the maritimesector remains one of the hardest to abate.
In BC, port activity is critical to our economy.
In 2024, almost 3,000 ships stopped in at the Port of Vancouver, and over 10 % of thesevisits were by cruise ships.
(00:59):
Cruise lines, passengers, and crew spend more than $1.1 billion locally each year.
Up in Prince Rupert, over 420 vessels called in at the port.
Decarbonizing ports and shipping isn't just a challenge.
It's a major opportunity for BC and Canada to lead in clean fuels, sustainableinfrastructure, and global collaboration.
(01:25):
I'm Jeanette Jackson, CEO of Forsight Canada and your host of Clean Tech Forward.
Today, we're exploring how ports can help fuel the future of clean transportation.
Here in BC, we're not just talking about ideas.
We're seeing them in action.
From battery electric tugboats to shore power and international green shipping corridors,these innovations are actively reducing emissions along our coastlines.
(01:48):
We'll dive into the deep complexities and real opportunities of decarbonizing maritimetransportation in just a moment.
Welcome to Clean Tech Forward.
This season, we're exploring the challenges, opportunities and real-world solutionsshaping the future of British Columbia's clean transportation.
(02:10):
Join us as we talk to leaders and innovators working to accelerate BC's path to a net-zeroeconomy.
One that benefits people, planet and profits.
From electric buses and tugboats to alternative fuels and shared infrastructure, buckleup.
for an electrifying ride into the future.
(02:30):
Powered by Foresight Canada's BC Net Zero Innovation Network.
At Foresight Canada, we help the world do more with less sustainably.
The BC Net Zero Innovation Network is a first-of-its-kind ecosystem platform thataccelerates the adoption of clean technologies throughout BC's top industries.
Clean air, clean water, clean transportation.
(02:52):
And Net Zero economy starts here.
Think about the sheer number of packages we order online and the long journey they take toreach our doorsteps.
It's no surprise that millions of tons of goods move through BC's ports every year.
(03:12):
In 2024 alone, 158 million metric tons of goods moved through Port of Vancouver terminals.
That's three and a half million of those giant 20-foot shipping containers.
Now imagine the amount of fuel required to move those giant ships across oceans and theemissions generated just to lift those containers.
(03:35):
Decarbonizing a system that runs 24-7 and spans the globe isn't simple, especially whenopen seas aren't exactly wired for clean energy.
Someone who knows a thing or two about a project of this magnitude is Juveria Weltkamp.
She collaborates with 20 cities and 22 port authorities worldwide through the Green PortsForum.
(03:58):
And they have a bold goal, cut porty missions in half by 2030.
Very excited to be here with a special guest.
You know, we've been working together and collaborating since her time at the VancouverEconomic Commission, but now she's taken on an incredibly interesting role.
Sure.
Yeah.
Thanks, Jeanette.
And we have in fact traveled the world together.
(04:20):
So it is really exciting.
And I love your podcast.
I think the work that I do can be described as removing market barriers so that we cantransform our industry sectors and our built environment to be more climate friendly and
be fit for purpose for the future that we're facing.
Yeah.
No, I love that.
That's amazing.
(04:41):
You're really spearheading and convening the thought leaders around uh green shipping.
And the reality is while there's progress, there's challenges.
With every challenge, there's an opportunity.
I think before COVID, maybe we didn't all think about the supply chain very much.
But after COVID, we all became these sort of armchair supply chain procurementspecialists.
(05:07):
Oh, we're not getting the parts and we're not getting the...
bananas we like and why does the butter look different?
You know, we all started thinking about these things.
And um now that I work in the sector, we talk often about how 80 plus percent ofeverything you see around you came on a ship.
So a very prominent sector in our trade, in our global economy.
(05:33):
With the tariff war that we are in right now with the United States, I hear more and moretalk about how strategic the port is to help diversify our trade.
So a really critical part of the economy.
However, it does contribute to 3 % of emissions, which is growing quite fast.
And it has historically not had as much urgency, I suppose, enough
(06:00):
pressure to decarbonize.
So now you have this massive opportunity with the industry saying, look, we are respondingto all the people who ship their products with us, the Amazons, the Ikeas, the Targets and
Patagonias of the world who are saying we want zero carbon options to get our sustainableproducts to market.
(06:23):
Bringing the local perspective to our discussion about shipping decarbonization, we haveRobin Sylvester.
former CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
So Robin, why don't I pass it over to you?
Would love to hear, you know, a quick summary of what you're working on now.
Thanks, Jeanette.
Yeah, no, it's great to be with you.
And yeah, I ran the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority for about 15 years, finishing up in2023 with that.
(06:47):
And since then, I've been doing sort of a mix of board and advisory work in the sort ofsupply chain, decarbonisation, energy transition space.
It's a fascinating space to be involved in.
One thing I love about the transportation space, whether it's a personal vehicle or havingyour goods shipped that you ordered on Amazon to your front door, people get it, right?
They get that products are moving from point A to point B and parts of products also needto move from point A to point B.
(07:12):
there's so many different modes of transportation that need to get it there.
with internet deliveries and various companies who will bring those parcels to your door.
I think people still forget just how much is going on in the background.
One dollar and three of Canada's trade outside North America goes through the port inVancouver.
And if you think about that again in the current climate, that's pretty topical.
(07:33):
That's grain going all over the world, feeding people.
It's potash as fertilizer.
It's coal to make steel for cars and windmills and all those things.
I think people relate to the stuffing containers that they buy in the stores, but maybethe
The other things get a bit forgotten around the way, it's good that people are starting tounderstand it more for sure.
It's probably worth just putting a bit of context in place.
mean, so shipping, it's actually the most efficient way of moving a ton of product for akilometer because it's moving through water, which is relatively low resistance.
(08:00):
You're not having to lift it off the ground and it's of, it's more fuel efficient thantrains and cars and trucks.
But nonetheless, it moves a lot of product and it's about 300 million tons of CO2emissions from shipping globally.
It's something that we really need to focus on improving.
It's again, it's important to recognize that
There have been steady changes in fuel standards for ships.
We've had an emissions control area in Canada for 15 years, which means that when a shipgets to within 200 kilometers of our coast, it has to switch to much cleaner fuel.
(08:28):
So that's helping reduce emissions, and that's North America-wide, Europe-wide, around allthe Chinese ports now as well.
But there's no doubt that shipping is big user of fossil fuels.
It's a big emitter of CO2.
And so it's really important for it to be part of the change.
being part of the change does not come without its challenges.
Juveria knows just how significant those challenges can be.
(08:52):
So when you think about shipping and the ports as a major contributor to our globalemissions, what are some of the barriers to decarbonizing the sector today?
So the first one, know, moving ships, we're talking about moving these big, heavy thingsand they just need so much energy.
(09:12):
They need
a lot of fuel and they're very heavy, they go very long distances.
And so just seeing how we can supply the kind of clean fuel that we need, that is one ofthe biggest challenges.
All our sectors are electrifying trucks, buildings, industry, shipping.
(09:34):
How will we make sure we can get enough power?
And then who's going to make the decision of how we prioritize who gets it first?
The other challenge is the money.
There's lots of green capital out there, but what we've found is that they might not knowhow to invest in the sector.
Like what are the primary sustainability targets for a port?
(09:58):
How does the financial sector kind of wrap its head around that?
And the third is the people.
We just launched a report on green maritime jobs and actually started to map.
how fossil fuel jobs can transition and how those skills are very much needed in the neweconomy.
But we need to train people, we need to get people ready, we need to have that transitionplanned in an orderly way so that no one is left behind.
(10:28):
Another challenge in decarbonizing shipping involves the availability of infrastructure tosupport it.
I mean, if we think of electric cars as being part of a transition on land, well, ifyou're in a ship in the North Pacific, you're probably about as far as an
you can possibly get from an electric grid.
So for those long distance transfers, it's probably not battery electric in theforeseeable future.
(10:50):
And just like a car, I mean, if you're a family thinking about maybe buying an electriccar, if you've got a reasonably new car and it's working reasonably well, it's probably
not top of your list.
It's probably when the car needs replacing, you start to think about it and they have lookat it and you think about what it costs and kind of find somewhere to charge for the
places I want to drive.
And shipping is kind of in exactly that cycle.
(11:10):
but at a much bigger scale.
A ship can be anything from 20 million to 200 million dollars.
They last about 20 years.
The infrastructure to get fuel to ships, oil refineries and services in ports is allestablished and has billions of dollars of investment.
So it's a big complicated system to change.
The good news is there's a lot starting to happen about changing it.
(11:31):
But just like that transition to electric cars, it's going to be measured in years, not indays and months.
Like you said, like you really, why would you just replace something for the sake ofreplacing it?
Even though it's the best thing for the environment, the reality is it comes at a cost andthe business case has to make sense, right?
Yep.
And I mean, just sort of changing all the cars in the world or all the ships in the world,I mean, that has a big environmental impact.
(11:56):
There's a lot of energy embedded in those things.
And if they've got usable life, there's this dilemma about sort of, do you sort of wastethe energy that went into creating them and the money that went into creating them or?
swap them all out and the reality is it's a, as you say, it takes time.
It happens as they come to an end of a usable life.
Internationally and here at home in Canada, we are making progress to decarbonize what wecan at ports and in shipping.
(12:22):
Alternative fuels are playing an important role and we're also seeing electrification ofsmaller vessels, both essential for reducing our maritime emissions.
When you think about sort of the shipping sector relative to
road and rail, how does it compare in terms of its progress to decarbonized operations?
I would say there's just like road and rail, there's a lot going on.
(12:45):
think progress is definitely being made.
It's probably helpful first off just to think about sort of two different types ofshipping.
There's that sort of the big ships that go long distances across the Pacific, across theAtlantic, all those things.
And they have different requirements to the smaller vessels that we see around port, liketugs or pilot boats or even ferries that are going point to point in sort of defined
(13:08):
routes over shorter voyages.
And then you kind of need to think about what are the fuel options?
The sort of the one that's becoming more prevalent, which is it's a step in the rightdirection.
It's not going to be the net zero solution is LNG.
But LNG is starting to appear here in BC.
I mean, we have BC ferries that are using LNG.
We're now actually just in the last sort six months seeing LNG bunkering taking place inport.
(13:32):
Bunkering is refueling a ship.
It's kind of like the gas station process for a car, but for a ship on a big scale.
And that's actually kind of exciting because if you look at the LNGs in detail, it's stilla fossil fuel, but it's actually got, if it's as it is here with Fortis who produce the
LNG, they use electricity to compress the natural gas to a high pressure to make LNG,which is just compressed gas.
(13:55):
Because they're using hydroelectricity from hydro, then they're not sort of emittingfossil fuels to create the LNG from the natural gas.
And it's a saving of about 25 to 28 % of CO2 emissions compared to diesel.
So that's a saving worth having when you're talking about those big numbers of 3 % ofglobal emissions that we're talking about at the beginning for shipping as a whole.
(14:18):
When you start to look at some of the other options, the sort of the real potential netzero fuels, which are hydrogen,
or probably sort of hydrogen carriers as they're called, things like ammonia or methanol.
There are a couple of escort tugs for Trans Mountain on order with CoTUG, which are goingto be dual fuel diesel methanol arriving in the port in the next year or so.
(14:40):
And we're starting to see ships, sort of shipping companies worldwide exploring theseoptions, but it does come with challenges.
Just like that sort of electric car dilemma, am I going to be able to find somewhere tocharge my car when I want to drive to Prince George or Prince Rupert?
The ships have the same issue.
They know they can get diesel or marine bunker fuel pretty much anywhere around the worldthey're going to be.
(15:02):
But there aren't that many places that can provide methanol or ammonia or hydrogen.
So that infrastructure needs to get built out.
And for the people building that infrastructure,
they need to know there's going to be a demand.
So there's sort of a of a chicken and egg which is starting to break through as companiesare starting to order these new fuel vessels.
Juveria believes getting ahead of the game by bunkering alternative fuels could be awinning strategy for BC Sports.
(15:27):
As we transition, we need to be ready for the customers who come and say, want our cleanfuels, could you please bunker clean fuels?
We have an opportunity to export clean Canadian.
products to the rest of the world.
So having that strategy in place is really essential and a big opportunity for BC becausewe also do have clean energy here.
(15:51):
We have the means of producing green hydrogen, which is a feedstock for some of thesefuels.
We have lots of innovation here.
We have shipbuilding here.
Canada is a maritime country with a long history.
So lots of opportunity here.
And some of that is about coordinating our industry.
So the kinds of thing that foresight does, which is bringing those stakeholders togetherso that instead of working slowly on our own, we can come together, identify the
(16:19):
challenges more quickly, remove those barriers more quickly and get moving.
which of these solutions is most viable for BC's ports in the near term?
I would say in the short term, it's going to be a combination of electrification for thosekind of near the coast ussels we're already seeing.
electric tugs in the port system here and up in Kitimat, which is fantastic, takingadvantage of the clean power from BC Hydro.
(16:45):
And then the LNG piece, we have LNG available now in the port through Fortis.
BC ferries have been using it for quite a while with a very sort of neat solution thatactually involves getting a road tanker of LNG onto the ferry to provide it that way
before Fortis had the Marine jetty.
And so those solutions are here today and they need to start to gather scale.
The question about sort of the
(17:06):
the longer term is it going to be methanol, ammonia, hydrogen?
That's a question everybody's asking around the world at the moment.
I think it's a lot about the right technology and fuel for the right application.
much.
And it comes down to weight, distance, size.
And a bit like the sort of thing we see going on with electricity grids as well is thelong-term solution hydropower, windmills, solar power.
(17:29):
Ultimately, all of them are taking us in the right direction.
I get quite excited by just seeing these changes start to happen, seeing the batteryelectric tugs starting to appear in the port, seeing the LNG fueling starting to happen,
hearing about the sort of methanol dual fuel tugs that are coming in, that change isstarting to happen.
So those sort of those small bites on that big audacious goal are starting to be made.
(17:49):
As we move toward a net zero economy, it's encouraging to see real solutions taking holdin the shipping sector.
From alternative fuels and battery storage,
to the use of hydroelectric power, the industry is beginning to shift.
Ships are tapping into something called shore power, and smaller port vessels, liketugboats, are going electric.
(18:14):
Looking ahead, new opportunities for decarbonization will emerge through smarter, moreconnected systems between ports and the cities they serve.
Another.
perspective to bring to the table.
Shipping contributes to 100,000 premature deaths annually as well because of the pollutionthat's associated, not just the carbon pollution, but socks and knocks and pollutants that
(18:39):
are harmful for human health.
And so when you have the ships at the birth at port, if they are burning that heavy bunkeroil, it's really bad for the communities who are port adjacent.
So a lot of ports are looking at how can we have shore power.
And that means instead of burning the really dirty fuel, plug in and use ideally cleanelectricity.
(19:07):
The benefits of shore power have already been demonstrated here in BC by the cruiseindustry, which has been taking advantage of the local grid for years.
I always think the cruise industry is kind of interesting.
It's one that people relate to about the port.
And to the credit of the industry, they've been early adopters of emissions reductiontechnology.
So cruise ships have been plugging into BC Hydro since 2009 using clean hydro powerinstead of diesel when they're alongside Canada Place.
(19:32):
That's steadily expanding.
So imagine if you have every traffic light you went to, you could plug in and stop theengine in your car.
It's kind of like that.
The cruise ships tend to be there for eight to 10 hours and they can plug into clean powerwhile they're alongside.
So that's kind of neat.
And that's been in place for, again, sort of nearly 15 years now.
Vancouver was one of the first ports to have electric tugboats.
Super fascinating to me.
(19:54):
think actually at one stage there were six electric tugs in the world and five of themwere in BC between sort C-SPAN and SAM.
So that's pretty cool really.
I mean, tugs don't they don't sort of consume the amount of fuel that a deep seashipconsumes.
they're mean, they're powerful little vessels that are moving these big ships around andthey're operating in the heart of the urban area here in Vancouver.
(20:14):
it's really it's firstly it's an ideal application.
for a battery electric system, now that batteries are getting to have that energy density,because a tends to go out and do a few hours work, and then it can come back alongside,
and it might be waiting a few hours before it's called out again.
Perfect to be able to recharge, have those batteries full, ready for the next piece ofwork.
One of the other bits of the story that actually I think is really neat, and again, it'svery little known in Vancouver, is there's a tugboat naval architecture company here,
(20:41):
Robert Allen, and they've been involved in all those tug projects here in Vancouver.
and the CoTUG ones I mentioned, the methanol ones that are coming in in the future.
And in fact, they're involved in a huge amount of these projects all around the world.
And we've got this sort of grown in Vancouver story where we've been early adopters helpedalong by a local company who've got a sort of a long history in innovation and tug design.
(21:05):
And it's all happening here on our doorstep.
It's really kind of neat.
When it comes to plugging into the benefits of electricity at our ports, the energyexchange
can actually go both ways.
Juveria has already seen the potential of port-to-grid technology in Japan.
There is so much innovation in ports and shipping around the world.
(21:28):
The team that I'm part of at C40 Cities, our unique perspective is that there is a kind ofuntapped potential for cities and ports to work more closely together.
have this big role in energy transition.
Cities, communities need energy for our transportation systems, for our buildings.
(21:50):
So there's a lot of synergies.
And a really fantastic example that I can share is from Yokohama.
And in Yokohama, the city is at capacity for the grid.
They're thinking of innovative ways that they could grow the power supply.
But...
(22:10):
given the unique characteristics of their geography and their terrain, offshore wind onits own didn't seem like a great solution.
But what they're actually doing is they're now planning to build offshore wind withbatteries that are on tankers at the port so the offshore wind can reach the port and be
(22:32):
stored on batteries, which then feeds into the grid.
So there's some really
novel, interesting ways that cities and ports can collaborate with each other.
Clean energy solutions are already in play at ports in BC and around the world.
But to meet those ambitious global emissions targets, we're going to need collaboration ona global scale.
(22:56):
Because at the end of the day, cleaner air and a healthier planet benefit us all, nomatter where we live.
Let's sort of
pivot into the future outlook.
We know there are some specific ways that we can accelerate adoption of solutions.
What do you think might be some specific tools or mechanisms that we need for thatacceleration to happen?
(23:21):
If we go back to the COP26, it was in Glasgow, think, the of the climate, world, theUnited Nations Climate Conference.
had the Clydebank Declaration that was setting up, encouraging the establishment of thingscalled green corridors where
kind of the ecosystem around a particular shipping route would come together to worktogether on how to decarbonize that system by 2050.
And actually two of those green corridors are linked here into Vancouver.
(23:43):
There's one working across the North Pacific, which is a combination of parties involvedin bulk materials from Vancouver to Japan.
So NYK was started off with tech, it's now Glencore, Elk Valley Coal, Oldendorf, theports.
and Sam Tugs and sort of just a whole number of parties coming together to look at, okay,how do we get the emissions out of that shipping route from Vancouver to Japan?
(24:08):
And then the other one that's quite exciting is there's a combination of the Port ofSeattle and Port of Vancouver and the cruise lines looking at how do we get the Alaska
cruise system to zero emissions?
So it's great to see those sort of, like you say, the ecosystems coming together, startingto look at how do we, recognizing this is a collective issue, we all need to work on it,
we need to work on it together.
How do we do that?
(24:29):
It's great to see again Vancouver at the heart of two of those initiatives.
Juveria supports green corridor initiatives like these through her work with the GreenPorts Forum.
And she's witnessed their transformative power firsthand.
So these are voluntary initiatives, but where multi-stakeholders along that value chainare coming together and saying, we're going to collaborate.
(24:52):
We're going to set some common targets.
And there are number of something like 40 green shipping corridors when there were nonejust less than six years ago.
So they have proliferated and our team supports the LA, Shanghai green shipping corridoras well as the LA Long Beach Singapore green and digital shipping corridor.
(25:17):
And those kinds of initiatives where you have shipping lines, you have the ports, you have
the cities, have cargo owners involved.
Those are really transformative because they show you the art of the possible.
There's a commitment on those corridors to have green zero emission vessels on the routeand uh demonstrating that it's possible, bringing in the finance, coordinating on the
(25:48):
policy.
On the port infrastructure side,
A lot of it is about electrification of that cargo handling equipment and the kind ofheavy duty vehicles that operate at the ports.
There's initiatives to try and collaborate to really daylight the opportunity, right?
(26:11):
So the manufacturers know that there's a market there, but how do they actually getcertainty that all these terminal operators around the world actually want their...
zero emission solutions.
So bringing the industry together, sometimes overcoming that competitiveness and creatinga space where they can share data without worrying about giving away their competitiveness
(26:41):
and doing that in a coordinated way.
That's coordination right across the value chain.
For Robin, this kind of collaboration is essential for making progress that benefitseveryone in the long run.
sports compete with each other for various different types of cargo, but you kind ofalways regard safety and environment as things where you collaborate.
I we're all better if everyone's doing well on safety and environment.
(27:04):
And so there's a lot of good collaboration taking place.
And it's benefited Vancouver, for example.
mean, Los Angeles, Long Beach mandated the use of shore power probably now around 15 yearsago.
And that was instrumental in starting to set the standards globally.
We don't even think about it now, but if you get a, if you buy a
hairdryer or a TV, you plug it into the wall and the plug fits and the voltage is right.
(27:28):
And initially with shore power for ships, there were just different standards, differentvoltages, different plugs.
And the work that started off particularly in LA and Long Beach helped create thoseinternational standards that mean that technology then can roll out much more easily.
So there's lots of good examples of sort of collaboration and different ports leading indifferent areas that move the whole thing forward for everybody.
(27:50):
you look forward five or 10 years, what
do you think is possible to get us further to net zero through an innovation lens, if youwill?
To put sort of frame around it, when we looked at the port, what are the emissions sourcesin the port?
And if we want to hit that sort of 40 % reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050, whattechnology do we need to adopt?
(28:13):
And it was kind of sobering, because if we adopted all the known technology, this wasabout five, six years ago, we couldn't hit those targets, because the technology isn't
wasn't then available and still isn't today to get that scale of change.
But then if you look over that last five years, it's sort of encouraging.
mean, if you look now electric cars, I mean, in Vancouver, we see a lot of electric carsaround.
(28:35):
uh Electric cars are getting cheaper, their range is getting longer, the infrastructure isgetting built out, it's taking less time to charge them.
So people are sort of, much more comparable to having a gas car these days.
sort of the technology is coming through and is making those big changes.
Going back to Corvus, I reading about their batteries recently and they've got a newgeneration of batteries that are about three times the energy density of the original
(28:56):
ones.
And I think what we're going to see is new technology around marine engines, aroundhydrogen use, around creation of these sort of hydrogen carrier fuels starting to emerge
at scale, um which is really going to sort of change the game.
And so the thing about technology, I guess, is the sort of there'll always be new thingsthat you never thought about that someone comes along that starts as a wacky idea and ends
up changing the world maybe even so.
(29:19):
Let's go back to those online orders arriving at our doors.
As consumers, we also have the power to make an impact when it comes to reducing theenvironmental impact of shipping.
Even small actions, like choosing lower impact delivery options or asking the rightquestions before booking that next ocean cruise, can make a difference.
(29:41):
I think it's important for, you know, people listening, you know, ask the questions toyour service providers.
you know, do your research, how do goods move from A to B?
There's actually a website you can go to where you can see all the ships moving and howmany ships are active at one time.
so the environmental impact is big.
But if we, you know, start incrementally and implement things like all the alternativefuel research and applications that are being done, it's incredible.
(30:09):
It's going to be, it's going to have a huge impact.
And it's really true what you say that, I the cruise lines have been focused on this for along time.
Part of that's come from pressure from people that go on cruises.
And that's healthy.
So it's sort of ask your cruise line, what are they doing about sustainability?
What are they doing about energy transition?
What are they doing about managing the garbage from the ships?
They'll probably have a good answer actually.
(30:29):
And the more people ask, the better, even better those answers will get.
It's wild, like the scale and scope of this opportunity.
And that's why love how you brought it home to like consumer decisions.
So yes, even though
It needs to be a coordinated, focused effort at that high policy leadership level.
um People do expect to press a button and it goes on the ship and it comes there andAmazon delivers it to your front door and those expectations come at a cost.
(31:00):
What should the everyday consumer know about the shipping sector and how they caninfluence the direction that it goes?
I love the question because we all want to make it more meaningful.
how do, what do I do with this information?
On the other hand, I think climate action is beyond only individual choices at this point.
(31:25):
I think we need concerted whole of the economy, whole of the country decisions totransition our energy system.
So, you know, making sure that you know.
who you're voting for that has a vision that is transformative and can deliver.
(31:47):
think these are the big picture things.
It's not about double-sided photocopying anymore, I wouldn't say.
But we can still make sustainable choices.
And the biggest way to do that is with our purchasing power.
Not only about, you know, right now we're talking about
(32:08):
buying Canadian, just making more informed and maybe intentional choices.
You know, I have two kids, so I'm always about convenience.
uh So I can't give up the convenience, but I can still be intentional and look at thelabel and think about, you know, how is this choice resonating for my local economy?
(32:34):
The best resilient economies have strong
local economies.
So I think that is still, you know, that's one piece of advice.
And bank with your values.
Like every decision you make with your money, where you bank, how you spend it, where it'sinvested, this is how we can send a signal that these are the choices we want to invest
(32:58):
in.
Thank you to Robin Silvester and Juvieria Veldkamp for sharing their knowledge and theimportant work they're doing to help our ports.
and shipping sector operate more sustainably.
What we learned today is that ports are central shipping hubs and we have the opportunityto not only decarbonize our imports, but export the technology that we deploy on our
(33:21):
ports.
So let's dig in, understand what's happening at your port, how are your goods getting toyour front door and what decisions do you need to make to decarbonize our shipping
infrastructure.
If I were to leave our listeners with a final aha moment for this episode,
Especially if you're someone with influence, funding, or passion to advance cleantransportation, it's this.
(33:42):
Every person along the supply chain has an important role to play in reducing emissionsfrom shipping.
Whether you're a consumer clicking buy now or book now, a decision maker choosing fuelsfor a fleet, or an innovator designing the next generation of marine batteries, your
choices matter.
Meeting ambitious emissions targets will take bold ideas, practical action, and awillingness to explore every viable option.
(34:06):
even if it's not net zero yet, because every step forward helps us get closer to thefuture we're all working toward.
Next time on Clean Tech Forward, we're talking trucks.
Big ones.
From mines to logging roads, we'll dig into why electrifying BC's heavy duty fleets isharder than it looks and what it'll take to make clean transportation work in the real
(34:30):
world.
Hit subscribe so you don't miss it.
Clean Tech Forward is fueled by Foresight Canada's BC Net Zero Innovation Network, poweredby Pacific Economic Development Canada and the Government of British Columbia.
Learn more about how BC is driving the future of clean transportation at ForesightCAC.comslash British Columbia.
(35:09):
you
Clean Tech Forward is an everything podcasts production hosted by Jeanette Jackson andnarrated by me, Tamara Stanners.
Show runner and writer, Jessica Grechik.
Sound engineer, Jordan Wong.
Executive producer, Jennifer Smith.
(35:34):
Another Everything Podcast production.
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
So cruise ships have been plugging into BC Hydro since 2009 using clean hydro powerinstead of diesel when they're alongside Canada Place.
That's steadily expanding.
So imagine if you just stop every traffic light you went to, you could plug in and stopthe engine in your car.
It's kind of like that.
The cruise ships tend to be there for eight to 10 hours and they can plug into clean powerwhile they're alongside.
(00:31):
Moving goods around the world by ship accounts for nearly 3 % of global carbon emissions.
On land, we are making good progress to decarbonize transportation, but the maritimesector remains one of the hardest to abate.
In BC, port activity is critical to our economy.
In 2024, almost 3,000 ships stopped in at the Port of Vancouver, and over 10 % of thesevisits were by cruise ships.
(00:59):
Cruise lines, passengers, and crew spend more than $1.1 billion locally each year.
Up in Prince Rupert, over 420 vessels called in at the port.
Decarbonizing ports and shipping isn't just a challenge.
It's a major opportunity for BC and Canada to lead in clean fuels, sustainableinfrastructure, and global collaboration.
(01:25):
I'm Jeanette Jackson, CEO of Forsight Canada and your host of Clean Tech Forward.
Today, we're exploring how ports can help fuel the future of clean transportation.
Here in BC, we're not just talking about ideas.
We're seeing them in action.
From battery electric tugboats to shore power and international green shipping corridors,these innovations are actively reducing emissions along our coastlines.
(01:48):
We'll dive into the deep complexities and real opportunities of decarbonizing maritimetransportation in just a moment.
Welcome to Clean Tech Forward.
This season, we're exploring the challenges, opportunities and real-world solutionsshaping the future of British Columbia's clean transportation.
(02:10):
Join us as we talk to leaders and innovators working to accelerate BC's path to a net-zeroeconomy.
One that benefits people, planet and profits.
From electric buses and tugboats to alternative fuels and shared infrastructure, buckleup.
for an electrifying ride into the future.
(02:30):
Powered by Foresight Canada's BC Net Zero Innovation Network.
At Foresight Canada, we help the world do more with less sustainably.
The BC Net Zero Innovation Network is a first-of-its-kind ecosystem platform thataccelerates the adoption of clean technologies throughout BC's top industries.
Clean air, clean water, clean transportation.
(02:52):
And Net Zero economy starts here.
Think about the sheer number of packages we order online and the long journey they take toreach our doorsteps.
It's no surprise that millions of tons of goods move through BC's ports every year.
(03:12):
In 2024 alone, 158 million metric tons of goods moved through Port of Vancouver terminals.
That's three and a half million of those giant 20-foot shipping containers.
Now imagine the amount of fuel required to move those giant ships across oceans and theemissions generated just to lift those containers.
(03:35):
Decarbonizing a system that runs 24-7 and spans the globe isn't simple, especially whenopen seas aren't exactly wired for clean energy.
Someone who knows a thing or two about a project of this magnitude is Juveria Weltkamp.
She collaborates with 20 cities and 22 port authorities worldwide through the Green PortsForum.
(03:58):
And they have a bold goal, cut porty missions in half by 2030.
Very excited to be here with a special guest.
You know, we've been working together and collaborating since her time at the VancouverEconomic Commission, but now she's taken on an incredibly interesting role.
Sure.
Yeah.
Thanks, Jeanette.
And we have in fact traveled the world together.
(04:20):
So it is really exciting.
And I love your podcast.
I think the work that I do can be described as removing market barriers so that we cantransform our industry sectors and our built environment to be more climate friendly and
be fit for purpose for the future that we're facing.
Yeah.
No, I love that.
That's amazing.
(04:41):
You're really spearheading and convening the thought leaders around uh green shipping.
And the reality is while there's progress, there's challenges.
With every challenge, there's an opportunity.
I think before COVID, maybe we didn't all think about the supply chain very much.
But after COVID, we all became these sort of armchair supply chain procurementspecialists.
(05:07):
Oh, we're not getting the parts and we're not getting the...
bananas we like and why does the butter look different?
You know, we all started thinking about these things.
And um now that I work in the sector, we talk often about how 80 plus percent ofeverything you see around you came on a ship.
So a very prominent sector in our trade, in our global economy.
(05:33):
With the tariff war that we are in right now with the United States, I hear more and moretalk about how strategic the port is to help diversify our trade.
So a really critical part of the economy.
However, it does contribute to 3 % of emissions, which is growing quite fast.
And it has historically not had as much urgency, I suppose, enough
(06:00):
pressure to decarbonize.
So now you have this massive opportunity with the industry saying, look, we are respondingto all the people who ship their products with us, the Amazons, the Ikeas, the Targets and
Patagonias of the world who are saying we want zero carbon options to get our sustainableproducts to market.
(06:23):
Bringing the local perspective to our discussion about shipping decarbonization, we haveRobin Sylvester.
former CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
So Robin, why don't I pass it over to you?
Would love to hear, you know, a quick summary of what you're working on now.
Thanks, Jeanette.
Yeah, no, it's great to be with you.
And yeah, I ran the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority for about 15 years, finishing up in2023 with that.
(06:47):
And since then, I've been doing sort of a mix of board and advisory work in the sort ofsupply chain, decarbonisation, energy transition space.
It's a fascinating space to be involved in.
One thing I love about the transportation space, whether it's a personal vehicle or havingyour goods shipped that you ordered on Amazon to your front door, people get it, right?
They get that products are moving from point A to point B and parts of products also needto move from point A to point B.
(07:12):
there's so many different modes of transportation that need to get it there.
with internet deliveries and various companies who will bring those parcels to your door.
I think people still forget just how much is going on in the background.
One dollar and three of Canada's trade outside North America goes through the port inVancouver.
And if you think about that again in the current climate, that's pretty topical.
(07:33):
That's grain going all over the world, feeding people.
It's potash as fertilizer.
It's coal to make steel for cars and windmills and all those things.
I think people relate to the stuffing containers that they buy in the stores, but maybethe
The other things get a bit forgotten around the way, it's good that people are starting tounderstand it more for sure.
It's probably worth just putting a bit of context in place.
mean, so shipping, it's actually the most efficient way of moving a ton of product for akilometer because it's moving through water, which is relatively low resistance.
(08:00):
You're not having to lift it off the ground and it's of, it's more fuel efficient thantrains and cars and trucks.
But nonetheless, it moves a lot of product and it's about 300 million tons of CO2emissions from shipping globally.
It's something that we really need to focus on improving.
It's again, it's important to recognize that
There have been steady changes in fuel standards for ships.
We've had an emissions control area in Canada for 15 years, which means that when a shipgets to within 200 kilometers of our coast, it has to switch to much cleaner fuel.
(08:28):
So that's helping reduce emissions, and that's North America-wide, Europe-wide, around allthe Chinese ports now as well.
But there's no doubt that shipping is big user of fossil fuels.
It's a big emitter of CO2.
And so it's really important for it to be part of the change.
being part of the change does not come without its challenges.
Juveria knows just how significant those challenges can be.
(08:52):
So when you think about shipping and the ports as a major contributor to our globalemissions, what are some of the barriers to decarbonizing the sector today?
So the first one, know, moving ships, we're talking about moving these big, heavy thingsand they just need so much energy.
(09:12):
They need
a lot of fuel and they're very heavy, they go very long distances.
And so just seeing how we can supply the kind of clean fuel that we need, that is one ofthe biggest challenges.
All our sectors are electrifying trucks, buildings, industry, shipping.
(09:34):
How will we make sure we can get enough power?
And then who's going to make the decision of how we prioritize who gets it first?
The other challenge is the money.
There's lots of green capital out there, but what we've found is that they might not knowhow to invest in the sector.
Like what are the primary sustainability targets for a port?
(09:58):
How does the financial sector kind of wrap its head around that?
And the third is the people.
We just launched a report on green maritime jobs and actually started to map.
how fossil fuel jobs can transition and how those skills are very much needed in the neweconomy.
But we need to train people, we need to get people ready, we need to have that transitionplanned in an orderly way so that no one is left behind.
(10:28):
Another challenge in decarbonizing shipping involves the availability of infrastructure tosupport it.
I mean, if we think of electric cars as being part of a transition on land, well, ifyou're in a ship in the North Pacific, you're probably about as far as an
you can possibly get from an electric grid.
So for those long distance transfers, it's probably not battery electric in theforeseeable future.
(10:50):
And just like a car, I mean, if you're a family thinking about maybe buying an electriccar, if you've got a reasonably new car and it's working reasonably well, it's probably
not top of your list.
It's probably when the car needs replacing, you start to think about it and they have lookat it and you think about what it costs and kind of find somewhere to charge for the
places I want to drive.
And shipping is kind of in exactly that cycle.
(11:10):
but at a much bigger scale.
A ship can be anything from 20 million to 200 million dollars.
They last about 20 years.
The infrastructure to get fuel to ships, oil refineries and services in ports is allestablished and has billions of dollars of investment.
So it's a big complicated system to change.
The good news is there's a lot starting to happen about changing it.
(11:31):
But just like that transition to electric cars, it's going to be measured in years, not indays and months.
Like you said, like you really, why would you just replace something for the sake ofreplacing it?
Even though it's the best thing for the environment, the reality is it comes at a cost andthe business case has to make sense, right?
Yep.
And I mean, just sort of changing all the cars in the world or all the ships in the world,I mean, that has a big environmental impact.
(11:56):
There's a lot of energy embedded in those things.
And if they've got usable life, there's this dilemma about sort of, do you sort of wastethe energy that went into creating them and the money that went into creating them or?
swap them all out and the reality is it's a, as you say, it takes time.
It happens as they come to an end of a usable life.
Internationally and here at home in Canada, we are making progress to decarbonize what wecan at ports and in shipping.
(12:22):
Alternative fuels are playing an important role and we're also seeing electrification ofsmaller vessels, both essential for reducing our maritime emissions.
When you think about sort of the shipping sector relative to
road and rail, how does it compare in terms of its progress to decarbonized operations?
I would say there's just like road and rail, there's a lot going on.
(12:45):
think progress is definitely being made.
It's probably helpful first off just to think about sort of two different types ofshipping.
There's that sort of the big ships that go long distances across the Pacific, across theAtlantic, all those things.
And they have different requirements to the smaller vessels that we see around port, liketugs or pilot boats or even ferries that are going point to point in sort of defined
(13:08):
routes over shorter voyages.
And then you kind of need to think about what are the fuel options?
The sort of the one that's becoming more prevalent, which is it's a step in the rightdirection.
It's not going to be the net zero solution is LNG.
But LNG is starting to appear here in BC.
I mean, we have BC ferries that are using LNG.
We're now actually just in the last sort six months seeing LNG bunkering taking place inport.
(13:32):
Bunkering is refueling a ship.
It's kind of like the gas station process for a car, but for a ship on a big scale.
And that's actually kind of exciting because if you look at the LNGs in detail, it's stilla fossil fuel, but it's actually got, if it's as it is here with Fortis who produce the
LNG, they use electricity to compress the natural gas to a high pressure to make LNG,which is just compressed gas.
(13:55):
Because they're using hydroelectricity from hydro, then they're not sort of emittingfossil fuels to create the LNG from the natural gas.
And it's a saving of about 25 to 28 % of CO2 emissions compared to diesel.
So that's a saving worth having when you're talking about those big numbers of 3 % ofglobal emissions that we're talking about at the beginning for shipping as a whole.
(14:18):
When you start to look at some of the other options, the sort of the real potential netzero fuels, which are hydrogen,
or probably sort of hydrogen carriers as they're called, things like ammonia or methanol.
There are a couple of escort tugs for Trans Mountain on order with CoTUG, which are goingto be dual fuel diesel methanol arriving in the port in the next year or so.
(14:40):
And we're starting to see ships, sort of shipping companies worldwide exploring theseoptions, but it does come with challenges.
Just like that sort of electric car dilemma, am I going to be able to find somewhere tocharge my car when I want to drive to Prince George or Prince Rupert?
The ships have the same issue.
They know they can get diesel or marine bunker fuel pretty much anywhere around the worldthey're going to be.
(15:02):
But there aren't that many places that can provide methanol or ammonia or hydrogen.
So that infrastructure needs to get built out.
And for the people building that infrastructure,
they need to know there's going to be a demand.
So there's sort of a of a chicken and egg which is starting to break through as companiesare starting to order these new fuel vessels.
Juveria believes getting ahead of the game by bunkering alternative fuels could be awinning strategy for BC Sports.
(15:27):
As we transition, we need to be ready for the customers who come and say, want our cleanfuels, could you please bunker clean fuels?
We have an opportunity to export clean Canadian.
products to the rest of the world.
So having that strategy in place is really essential and a big opportunity for BC becausewe also do have clean energy here.
(15:51):
We have the means of producing green hydrogen, which is a feedstock for some of thesefuels.
We have lots of innovation here.
We have shipbuilding here.
Canada is a maritime country with a long history.
So lots of opportunity here.
And some of that is about coordinating our industry.
So the kinds of thing that foresight does, which is bringing those stakeholders togetherso that instead of working slowly on our own, we can come together, identify the
(16:19):
challenges more quickly, remove those barriers more quickly and get moving.
which of these solutions is most viable for BC's ports in the near term?
I would say in the short term, it's going to be a combination of electrification for thosekind of near the coast ussels we're already seeing.
electric tugs in the port system here and up in Kitimat, which is fantastic, takingadvantage of the clean power from BC Hydro.
(16:45):
And then the LNG piece, we have LNG available now in the port through Fortis.
BC ferries have been using it for quite a while with a very sort of neat solution thatactually involves getting a road tanker of LNG onto the ferry to provide it that way
before Fortis had the Marine jetty.
And so those solutions are here today and they need to start to gather scale.
The question about sort of the
(17:06):
the longer term is it going to be methanol, ammonia, hydrogen?
That's a question everybody's asking around the world at the moment.
I think it's a lot about the right technology and fuel for the right application.
much.
And it comes down to weight, distance, size.
And a bit like the sort of thing we see going on with electricity grids as well is thelong-term solution hydropower, windmills, solar power.
(17:29):
Ultimately, all of them are taking us in the right direction.
I get quite excited by just seeing these changes start to happen, seeing the batteryelectric tugs starting to appear in the port, seeing the LNG fueling starting to happen,
hearing about the sort of methanol dual fuel tugs that are coming in, that change isstarting to happen.
So those sort of those small bites on that big audacious goal are starting to be made.
(17:49):
As we move toward a net zero economy, it's encouraging to see real solutions taking holdin the shipping sector.
From alternative fuels and battery storage,
to the use of hydroelectric power, the industry is beginning to shift.
Ships are tapping into something called shore power, and smaller port vessels, liketugboats, are going electric.
(18:14):
Looking ahead, new opportunities for decarbonization will emerge through smarter, moreconnected systems between ports and the cities they serve.
Another.
perspective to bring to the table.
Shipping contributes to 100,000 premature deaths annually as well because of the pollutionthat's associated, not just the carbon pollution, but socks and knocks and pollutants that
(18:39):
are harmful for human health.
And so when you have the ships at the birth at port, if they are burning that heavy bunkeroil, it's really bad for the communities who are port adjacent.
So a lot of ports are looking at how can we have shore power.
And that means instead of burning the really dirty fuel, plug in and use ideally cleanelectricity.
(19:07):
The benefits of shore power have already been demonstrated here in BC by the cruiseindustry, which has been taking advantage of the local grid for years.
I always think the cruise industry is kind of interesting.
It's one that people relate to about the port.
And to the credit of the industry, they've been early adopters of emissions reductiontechnology.
So cruise ships have been plugging into BC Hydro since 2009 using clean hydro powerinstead of diesel when they're alongside Canada Place.
(19:32):
That's steadily expanding.
So imagine if you have every traffic light you went to, you could plug in and stop theengine in your car.
It's kind of like that.
The cruise ships tend to be there for eight to 10 hours and they can plug into clean powerwhile they're alongside.
So that's kind of neat.
And that's been in place for, again, sort of nearly 15 years now.
Vancouver was one of the first ports to have electric tugboats.
Super fascinating to me.
(19:54):
think actually at one stage there were six electric tugs in the world and five of themwere in BC between sort C-SPAN and SAM.
So that's pretty cool really.
I mean, tugs don't they don't sort of consume the amount of fuel that a deep seashipconsumes.
they're mean, they're powerful little vessels that are moving these big ships around andthey're operating in the heart of the urban area here in Vancouver.
(20:14):
it's really it's firstly it's an ideal application.
for a battery electric system, now that batteries are getting to have that energy density,because a tends to go out and do a few hours work, and then it can come back alongside,
and it might be waiting a few hours before it's called out again.
Perfect to be able to recharge, have those batteries full, ready for the next piece ofwork.
One of the other bits of the story that actually I think is really neat, and again, it'svery little known in Vancouver, is there's a tugboat naval architecture company here,
(20:41):
Robert Allen, and they've been involved in all those tug projects here in Vancouver.
and the CoTUG ones I mentioned, the methanol ones that are coming in in the future.
And in fact, they're involved in a huge amount of these projects all around the world.
And we've got this sort of grown in Vancouver story where we've been early adopters helpedalong by a local company who've got a sort of a long history in innovation and tug design.
(21:05):
And it's all happening here on our doorstep.
It's really kind of neat.
When it comes to plugging into the benefits of electricity at our ports, the energyexchange
can actually go both ways.
Juveria has already seen the potential of port-to-grid technology in Japan.
There is so much innovation in ports and shipping around the world.
(21:28):
The team that I'm part of at C40 Cities, our unique perspective is that there is a kind ofuntapped potential for cities and ports to work more closely together.
have this big role in energy transition.
Cities, communities need energy for our transportation systems, for our buildings.
(21:50):
So there's a lot of synergies.
And a really fantastic example that I can share is from Yokohama.
And in Yokohama, the city is at capacity for the grid.
They're thinking of innovative ways that they could grow the power supply.
But...
(22:10):
given the unique characteristics of their geography and their terrain, offshore wind onits own didn't seem like a great solution.
But what they're actually doing is they're now planning to build offshore wind withbatteries that are on tankers at the port so the offshore wind can reach the port and be
(22:32):
stored on batteries, which then feeds into the grid.
So there's some really
novel, interesting ways that cities and ports can collaborate with each other.
Clean energy solutions are already in play at ports in BC and around the world.
But to meet those ambitious global emissions targets, we're going to need collaboration ona global scale.
(22:56):
Because at the end of the day, cleaner air and a healthier planet benefit us all, nomatter where we live.
Let's sort of
pivot into the future outlook.
We know there are some specific ways that we can accelerate adoption of solutions.
What do you think might be some specific tools or mechanisms that we need for thatacceleration to happen?
(23:21):
If we go back to the COP26, it was in Glasgow, think, the of the climate, world, theUnited Nations Climate Conference.
had the Clydebank Declaration that was setting up, encouraging the establishment of thingscalled green corridors where
kind of the ecosystem around a particular shipping route would come together to worktogether on how to decarbonize that system by 2050.
And actually two of those green corridors are linked here into Vancouver.
(23:43):
There's one working across the North Pacific, which is a combination of parties involvedin bulk materials from Vancouver to Japan.
So NYK was started off with tech, it's now Glencore, Elk Valley Coal, Oldendorf, theports.
and Sam Tugs and sort of just a whole number of parties coming together to look at, okay,how do we get the emissions out of that shipping route from Vancouver to Japan?
(24:08):
And then the other one that's quite exciting is there's a combination of the Port ofSeattle and Port of Vancouver and the cruise lines looking at how do we get the Alaska
cruise system to zero emissions?
So it's great to see those sort of, like you say, the ecosystems coming together, startingto look at how do we, recognizing this is a collective issue, we all need to work on it,
we need to work on it together.
How do we do that?
(24:29):
It's great to see again Vancouver at the heart of two of those initiatives.
Juveria supports green corridor initiatives like these through her work with the GreenPorts Forum.
And she's witnessed their transformative power firsthand.
So these are voluntary initiatives, but where multi-stakeholders along that value chainare coming together and saying, we're going to collaborate.
(24:52):
We're going to set some common targets.
And there are number of something like 40 green shipping corridors when there were nonejust less than six years ago.
So they have proliferated and our team supports the LA, Shanghai green shipping corridoras well as the LA Long Beach Singapore green and digital shipping corridor.
(25:17):
And those kinds of initiatives where you have shipping lines, you have the ports, you have
the cities, have cargo owners involved.
Those are really transformative because they show you the art of the possible.
There's a commitment on those corridors to have green zero emission vessels on the routeand uh demonstrating that it's possible, bringing in the finance, coordinating on the
(25:48):
policy.
On the port infrastructure side,
A lot of it is about electrification of that cargo handling equipment and the kind ofheavy duty vehicles that operate at the ports.
There's initiatives to try and collaborate to really daylight the opportunity, right?
(26:11):
So the manufacturers know that there's a market there, but how do they actually getcertainty that all these terminal operators around the world actually want their...
zero emission solutions.
So bringing the industry together, sometimes overcoming that competitiveness and creatinga space where they can share data without worrying about giving away their competitiveness
(26:41):
and doing that in a coordinated way.
That's coordination right across the value chain.
For Robin, this kind of collaboration is essential for making progress that benefitseveryone in the long run.
sports compete with each other for various different types of cargo, but you kind ofalways regard safety and environment as things where you collaborate.
I we're all better if everyone's doing well on safety and environment.
(27:04):
And so there's a lot of good collaboration taking place.
And it's benefited Vancouver, for example.
mean, Los Angeles, Long Beach mandated the use of shore power probably now around 15 yearsago.
And that was instrumental in starting to set the standards globally.
We don't even think about it now, but if you get a, if you buy a
hairdryer or a TV, you plug it into the wall and the plug fits and the voltage is right.
(27:28):
And initially with shore power for ships, there were just different standards, differentvoltages, different plugs.
And the work that started off particularly in LA and Long Beach helped create thoseinternational standards that mean that technology then can roll out much more easily.
So there's lots of good examples of sort of collaboration and different ports leading indifferent areas that move the whole thing forward for everybody.
(27:50):
you look forward five or 10 years, what
do you think is possible to get us further to net zero through an innovation lens, if youwill?
To put sort of frame around it, when we looked at the port, what are the emissions sourcesin the port?
And if we want to hit that sort of 40 % reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050, whattechnology do we need to adopt?
(28:13):
And it was kind of sobering, because if we adopted all the known technology, this wasabout five, six years ago, we couldn't hit those targets, because the technology isn't
wasn't then available and still isn't today to get that scale of change.
But then if you look over that last five years, it's sort of encouraging.
mean, if you look now electric cars, I mean, in Vancouver, we see a lot of electric carsaround.
(28:35):
uh Electric cars are getting cheaper, their range is getting longer, the infrastructure isgetting built out, it's taking less time to charge them.
So people are sort of, much more comparable to having a gas car these days.
sort of the technology is coming through and is making those big changes.
Going back to Corvus, I reading about their batteries recently and they've got a newgeneration of batteries that are about three times the energy density of the original
(28:56):
ones.
And I think what we're going to see is new technology around marine engines, aroundhydrogen use, around creation of these sort of hydrogen carrier fuels starting to emerge
at scale, um which is really going to sort of change the game.
And so the thing about technology, I guess, is the sort of there'll always be new thingsthat you never thought about that someone comes along that starts as a wacky idea and ends
up changing the world maybe even so.
(29:19):
Let's go back to those online orders arriving at our doors.
As consumers, we also have the power to make an impact when it comes to reducing theenvironmental impact of shipping.
Even small actions, like choosing lower impact delivery options or asking the rightquestions before booking that next ocean cruise, can make a difference.
(29:41):
I think it's important for, you know, people listening, you know, ask the questions toyour service providers.
you know, do your research, how do goods move from A to B?
There's actually a website you can go to where you can see all the ships moving and howmany ships are active at one time.
so the environmental impact is big.
But if we, you know, start incrementally and implement things like all the alternativefuel research and applications that are being done, it's incredible.
(30:09):
It's going to be, it's going to have a huge impact.
And it's really true what you say that, I the cruise lines have been focused on this for along time.
Part of that's come from pressure from people that go on cruises.
And that's healthy.
So it's sort of ask your cruise line, what are they doing about sustainability?
What are they doing about energy transition?
What are they doing about managing the garbage from the ships?
They'll probably have a good answer actually.
(30:29):
And the more people ask, the better, even better those answers will get.
It's wild, like the scale and scope of this opportunity.
And that's why love how you brought it home to like consumer decisions.
So yes, even though
It needs to be a coordinated, focused effort at that high policy leadership level.
um People do expect to press a button and it goes on the ship and it comes there andAmazon delivers it to your front door and those expectations come at a cost.
(31:00):
What should the everyday consumer know about the shipping sector and how they caninfluence the direction that it goes?
I love the question because we all want to make it more meaningful.
how do, what do I do with this information?
On the other hand, I think climate action is beyond only individual choices at this point.
(31:25):
I think we need concerted whole of the economy, whole of the country decisions totransition our energy system.
So, you know, making sure that you know.
who you're voting for that has a vision that is transformative and can deliver.
(31:47):
think these are the big picture things.
It's not about double-sided photocopying anymore, I wouldn't say.
But we can still make sustainable choices.
And the biggest way to do that is with our purchasing power.
Not only about, you know, right now we're talking about
(32:08):
buying Canadian, just making more informed and maybe intentional choices.
You know, I have two kids, so I'm always about convenience.
uh So I can't give up the convenience, but I can still be intentional and look at thelabel and think about, you know, how is this choice resonating for my local economy?
(32:34):
The best resilient economies have strong
local economies.
So I think that is still, you know, that's one piece of advice.
And bank with your values.
Like every decision you make with your money, where you bank, how you spend it, where it'sinvested, this is how we can send a signal that these are the choices we want to invest
(32:58):
in.
Thank you to Robin Silvester and Juvieria Veldkamp for sharing their knowledge and theimportant work they're doing to help our ports.
and shipping sector operate more sustainably.
What we learned today is that ports are central shipping hubs and we have the opportunityto not only decarbonize our imports, but export the technology that we deploy on our
(33:21):
ports.
So let's dig in, understand what's happening at your port, how are your goods getting toyour front door and what decisions do you need to make to decarbonize our shipping
infrastructure.
If I were to leave our listeners with a final aha moment for this episode,
Especially if you're someone with influence, funding, or passion to advance cleantransportation, it's this.
(33:42):
Every person along the supply chain has an important role to play in reducing emissionsfrom shipping.
Whether you're a consumer clicking buy now or book now, a decision maker choosing fuelsfor a fleet, or an innovator designing the next generation of marine batteries, your
choices matter.
Meeting ambitious emissions targets will take bold ideas, practical action, and awillingness to explore every viable option.
(34:06):
even if it's not net zero yet, because every step forward helps us get closer to thefuture we're all working toward.
Next time on Clean Tech Forward, we're talking trucks.
Big ones.
From mines to logging roads, we'll dig into why electrifying BC's heavy duty fleets isharder than it looks and what it'll take to make clean transportation work in the real
(34:30):
world.
Hit subscribe so you don't miss it.
Clean Tech Forward is fueled by Foresight Canada's BC Net Zero Innovation Network, poweredby Pacific Economic Development Canada and the Government of British Columbia.
Learn more about how BC is driving the future of clean transportation at ForesightCAC.comslash British Columbia.
(35:09):
you
Clean Tech Forward is an everything podcasts production hosted by Jeanette Jackson andnarrated by me, Tamara Stanners.
Show runner and writer, Jessica Grechik.
Sound engineer, Jordan Wong.
Executive producer, Jennifer Smith.
(35:34):
Another Everything Podcast production.
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
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