In November, the U. The grants, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, are designed to support the deployment of zero-emission equipment, as well as infrastructure and climate and air quality planning projects across 53 inland and coastal ports. While much attention was focused on how the funding could be used to deploy electric cargo handling equipment, shore power for docked ships, and infrastructure upgrades, another essential element of the funding is for climate resilience planning. Several ports now have this funding, offering the resources to produce a comprehensive plan to make their ports more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
This in turn increases both the frequency and intensity of flood events, one of the climate risks ports are already preparing for. Other climate risks include more frequent and intense hurricanes, wildfires, and heat waves, all of which have an impact on ports. The definition of climate resilience is the capacity to recover from extreme events, which will clearly become increasingly important. At Tunley Environmental , we have been carrying out emissions inventories, net zero plans for ports, and are now advising ports on the process of carrying out a climate resilience plan.
Once a team is formed for climate resilience planning, the following steps offer best practice:. Resilience planning requires ports to assess risks and vulnerabilities, to implement a series of measures to protect infrastructure and assets, to train workforces, and to develop contingency plans that minimize disruptions and enable operations to bounce back quickly once an extreme weather event has passed. Many ports have experienced the challenges first-hand, and recognize that if they are not climate resilient, they are exposed to significant risk.
When a port with little resilience faces a catastrophic storm or hurricane that blows in and takes out power, equipment, and buildings, there is an immediate loss of revenue, loss of reputation, and increased difficulty in securing future insurance coverage.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is one agency that has resilience plans in place, assessing and addressing the risks posed by the rise in sea levels, increased precipitation and increasing temperatures.
