Port of Tanjung Pelepas Workshop advances plans to reduce tugboat CO2 emissions

 

A joint workshop was held this week, focusing on optimising the deployment of tugboats to reduce CO₂ emissions in the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Malaysia, a partnering country to GreenVoyage2050. During the workshop, potential avenues for improvement were identified, including quick wins, four of which were implemented before the end of the workshop week.

The workshop, organised by PTP and GreenVoyage2050, was held from 15 to 19 April, with participants spanning various roles in PTP and covering several port departments. GreenVoyage2050 has been supporting PTP, through its Pilot Accelerator, to develop a fuel and CO₂ emissions baseline from the tugboat operations in the port, and this workshop is another step towards the optimisation of tugboat operational planning.

As part of the workshop, participants mapped the current tugboat operation processes, identifying all steps from receiving a ship port call order to job completion, and brainstormed how to address existing bottlenecks and areas that deviate from an ideal process flow. Potential actions were subsequently prioritised, and the workshop concluded with agreeing upon concrete improvements and how they will be integrated into the tugboat operation process, determining ownership of each task, and defining how the success of the implemented changes will be measured.

This workshop forms part of GreenVoyage2050’s wider efforts to support developing countries to reduce maritime emissions. Learnings and best practices identified in the workshop are feeding into the development of a wider step-by-step GreenVoyage2050 Guide for ports that are aiming to assess the efficiency of their port operations and identify possible operational improvements.

IMO GreenVoyage2050 is actively supporting developing countries in achieving the Levels of Ambition set out in the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy, particularly through targeted support towards the development and implementation of low carbon ship and port pilot projects. GreenVoyage2050, currently funded by the Governments of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, was recently extended to run until 2030.