International maritime transport services means the transport of passengers or cargo by a sea-going vessel between a port of one Party and a port of the other Party or of a third country, or between a port of one Member State of the European Union and a port of another Member State of the European Union, as well as direct contracting with suppliers of other transport services to ensure door-to-door or multimodal transport operations, but not the supply of such other transport services.
The whole range of potential impacts of climate change on ports operations and throughput is still under study and it remains a high degree of uncertainty about it. Different climate change stressors can affect both ports and shipping. Ports will be affected by the combination of SLR and tides, storm surges, waves and high-speed winds. Inundations due to the occurrence of any combination of those expressions of the marine and inland hydrodynamic may give place to interruptions or lowing the cadence of ports operations; both cases involving losses in productivity, expressed in terms of reduction in gross weight of goods handled per time unit.
The impacts identified are related mainly with the ports and their infrastructures. They could be applied to all European islands.
| Hazard | Biophysical impacts | Socio economic impact |
| Sea level rise
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| Increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate events (storms, flooding) |
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CONTEXT
Europe boasts over 70,000 km of coastline and 27,000 km of navigable inland waterways, and the maritime transport has always been considered a catalyst for its economic development and prosperity, and a source of employment. More than 400 million passengers embark and disembark at European ports every year and 90% of the EU’s external freight trade is seaborne (EC, 2017). With 4500 marinas and nautical tourism ports, and 1.75 million of berths, Europe is also a leader destination worldwide for maritime sports and sailing (Cieniewicz, 2014; ICOMIA, 2013).
As by 2050 short sea shipping will have a strong role in reaching the EU transport goal of reducing 60% of greenhouse gas emission generated by transport and by 2030 the shift of 30% of road freight over 300 km to other modes. To achieve these goals, the design of more effective environmental strategies is required, for which it is crucial to generate more hierarchical and pilot evidences and data about the effects that CC has on the functional activities of this sector (Ecorys, 2017).
DEFINITION
“Maritime transport is the carriage of goods and passengers by sea-going vessels, on voyages undertaken wholly or partly at sea. The data collected from National Statistical Authorities are port statistics: information on goods handled in ports, passengers embarked and disembarked and vessel traffic. Detailed information is collected on the type of cargo and passengers, geographical areas where the partner ports are located, type, size and nationality of ships used to carry out that transportation” (Eurostat, 2017).
The data classification and collection system is based upon the Directive 2009/42/EC and Commission Decision 2008/861/EC, as amended by Commission Decision 2010/216/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of April, 14th 2010, by Regulation 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November, 24th 2010 and by Commission Delegated Decision 2012/186/EU of February, 3rd 2012 (Eurostat, 2017).
Maritime transport data focuses on three main aspects: i) gross weight of goods (in tons), ii) passenger movements (in number of passengers) and iii) vessel traffic (in number of vessels and in gross tonnage of vessels). The COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3577/92 of December, 7th 1992 applies to the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport within Member States (maritime cabotage). Data is collected by the national competent authorities in the reporting countries using a variety of sources, such as port administration systems, national maritime databases, customs databases or questionnaires to ports or shipping agents.
SOCLIMPACT ASSUMPTIONS
Good maritime transport services ensure a good quality of life on Europe’s islands, because islands remain largely dependent on the mainland for supplies and exports. While islands´ seaports play a crucial role in the European economy, acting as transportation hubs for most of goods exchange around the world, few evidences and scaled studies have been dedicated to measure the impact that CC has on these specific areas and the policies needed to face them, which is one of the objectives of Soclimpact.
In this attempt, and based on the previous regulations, we assume that the maritime transport sector covers the transport of passengers or cargo by a sea-going vessel between a port of one Party and a port of the other Party or of a third country, or between a port of one Member State of the European Union and a port of another Member State of the European Union, as well as direct contracting with suppliers of other transport services to ensure door-to-door or multimodal transport operations, but not the supply of such other transport services.
