Port of Vancouver's 'ambitious' zero-emissions plan praised, but critics say LNG stands in the way - Action News
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British Columbia

Port of Vancouver's 'ambitious' zero-emissions plan praised, but critics say LNG stands in the way

While the Port of Vancouver's climate goals gain international recognition, climate advocates say its simultaneous commitment to liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansion threaten toundermine its very own climate goals.

The Port of Vancouver isworking with FortisBC to expand liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering

A container ship unloads at the Port of Vancouver.
A container ship is docked a the Port of Vancouver, which is committed to becoming a zero-carbon port by 2050. (Jon Hernandez/CBC)

A Port of Vancouver patrol boat putters off into the Burrard inlet, its engine hummingas it runs off renewable diesel fuel made from natural fats.

The port's climate action director, Ronan Chester, is on board and says the fuel is just one step towards a much bigger transition.

"It's a test or demonstration that we're doing to understand the operability of the fuel," he toldCBC News while pointing out other boats and locomotives within the port testingthe same product.

At the container terminal, a handful of new electric rail-mounted cranes move cargo alongside the traditional diesel-powered ones. Chester says even some of the terminal trucks are electric.

"We have to find a way to get this port to a zero-emissions port," he said, staring ahead at a goal that's now less than three decades away.

"That really is about an energy transition, it's thinking about how to get different types of increasingly lower carbon intensity fuels and technologies into the port, into heavy-duty transportation."

Canada's largest port has committed to becoming a zero-carbon port by 2050, a transitionstill in its infancy buthas been dubbed ambitious by clean shipping advocates,as calls to dramaticaly reduce the industry's carbon footprint by that time grow louder and more urgent.

But somecritics say the port's simultaneous commitment to liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansionin its waters threaten toundermine its very own climate goals.

The port isworking with FortisBC to expand LNG bunkering in the region to meet growing demand from ships entering the port by 2030, which it says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 30 per cent.

On a river sits a cargo ship docked at a port with colorful storage boxes on the ship and on land. Red cranes are pulling cargo off the ship. In the water you can see small boats and other cargo vessels with small blue cranes. In the background you can see buildings at the base of some mountains.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada. Some critics say the port's commitment to liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansion in its waters threatens to undermine its very own climate goals. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Allyson Browne, climate campaigner with the international non-profit Pacific Environment, says the expansion, if completed, means the port will continue to be an emitter.

"There are some false solutions out there," she said.

"LNG is not a transition fuel, it's only furthering our reliance on fossil fuels and continuing this benefit that fossil companies are receiving off the backs of our public health and the well-being of our planet."

Port must 'abandon'LNG plans to reach goals

The California-based Pacific Environment, a consultant to the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO),recently graded 15 prominent ports across the world, including Vancouver's.

The group gave it a favourable 'Full Steam Ahead' rating, noting its commitment to become emissions-free is among the most ambitious pledges made by ports globally.

A man walks between transport trucks at Port of Vancouver's Centerm container facility in May 2013. The port's commitment to become emissions-free has been described as among the most ambitious in the world. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

It also referenced itsshore power for boats at berth, efforts to reduce noise pollution, and theEcoAction Program, which provides for reduced fees for clean ships.

But the grade concluded the port must "abandon all plans to support LNG bunkering" in order to achieve itsemissions goals.

"We have been advocating specifically to Vancouver ... to make sure they're not making any investments in LNG bunkering infrastructure or otherwise, and really taking a leadership position to say LNG is not the way to go,"said Browne.

The province has pledged its support to LNG expansion.

Transition to net-zero 'takes more time'

The global shipping industry in its current form is responsible for about three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, an amount equivalent to that of Germany.

The shipping industry's regulator,the IMO,has set atarget of cutting greenhouse emissions in half by 2050. To meetthe Paris Agreement's 1.5 C global heating target, shipping emissions would need to be completely eliminated by 2080.

The International Chamber of Shipping has called for net-zero by 2050, a targetproponents say could be achieved by making use of evolving marine fuel technologies, including recently developed hydrogen-powered cargo ships.

While advocates sayports like Vancouver should look toward bunkering zero-emission fuels of the future,Chester notes widespread adoptions are still a ways off, and transition fuels are needed now.

"We need to find what those other fuels and technologies are, but that's going to require expanding electrification, battery technology, distribution of electrical power, conversion to hydrogen where it's needed," said Chester.

"All that takes more time, and more money."