Advancing Green Ports: Funding and Financing for Maritime Decarbonization
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Publication Type:
Publisher:
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Publication:
August 2025
A life-cycle approach to ports, focusing on clean energy, waste management, and nature-based solutions, can reduce their environmental impact when adequately financed and policy-driven.
Ports are essential to domestic and international trade, but they have a significant impact on the environment, with maritime installations vulnerable to climate change.
Port operations and hinterland and coastal transport consume fresh water, energy, and construction materials, and generate emissions (such as greenhouse gases) and other pollutants (including wastewater, light, noise, vibration, and dust). The use of fossil fuels in port operations degrades the environment. Ports face direct and indirect impacts from hazards such as sea-level rise and extreme weather events, which can cause delays and closures that result in significant financial, social, and economic damages.
The brief analyzes how a life-cycle approach hinging on clean energy, waste management, and nature-based solutions can reduce ports’ environmental impact when combined with adequate financing and robust policies. It outlines how the SRMF can narrow the financing gap for maritime decarbonization as well as support public policy and de-risk green projects to underpin ports’ long-term sustainable development.
Contents
- Ports in Asia and the Pacific: the Backbone of Regional Trade
- What Is a Green Port?
- Need for a Green Port-Focused Initiative
- Best Practice Examples
- Barriers to Implementation
- Existing Funding and Financing Initiatives
- Sustainable and Resilient Maritime Fund (SRMF): Support Mechanisms
- SRMF Structure
- Next Steps
