36 American Journal of Transportation American Journal of Transportation ajot.com Harness The Great Lakes Trade Corridor Let your cargo flow on our 3,700km marine highway straight into the industrial heartland of North America. Highway H2O delivers a smarter, more direct route, getting your cargo closer to its final destination faster and more efficiently. WHY CHOOSE HIGHWAY H2O • Direct access to key industrial markets • Ideal for over-dimensional challenges and heavy-lift cargo • Safe, reliable, and efficient transit • Reduce congestion and transportation costs Move your cargo with confidence and keep your business moving forward. Plan your route today at www.hwyh2o.com A McKeil Marine Barge Port of Monroe Duluth Cargo Connect Duluth Seaway Port Authority Maxima Wagenborg Fleet Lock 6, St. Catharines, ON THE GREAT LAKES ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY SYSTEM The Seaway trade corridor is poised for more projects The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System stretches nearly 3,700 kilometres, connecting inland North America directly to global mar- kets. The St. Lawrence Seaway Man- agement Corporation operates and maintains the Canadian portion of the Seaway, while the U.S. St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation is the bi-national partner for the trade corridor, offering available capacity and a near-perfect reliability record. The purpose is not to simply keep traffic moving, but to ensure the system continues to deliver value for the businesses that rely on it. Hwy H2O brings together ports, terminals, carriers, and supply chain partners across the corridor to promote the Seaway as a competitive and sustain- able transportation solution. The corridor links more than 40 ports across eight states and six prov- inces, serving a region of roughly 60 million people. Each year, nearly 40 million tonnes of cargo moves through this system, supporting industries across agriculture, mining, manufac- turing, and energy. For freight forwarders and project cargo specialists, the combination of capacity, connectivity, and operational flexibility is increasingly valuable. And in a market where congestion and delays are the norm, having a compet- itive option can prove monumental in the quest to find greater efficiencies in cost, time and logistics. Typical project cargoes that tran- sit the corridor include semi-finished steel, heavy equipment for Western Canada’s oil & gas industry, and wind energy components such as blades, towers, nacelles and hubs. Emerging project and breakbulk sector com- modities also include South American imports of data centres and transform- ers from Argentina and Brazil. Finding ways to attract these and other cargoes from South America and European origin via the Great Lakes is the focus of business development efforts at global trade shows including Break- bulk Europe, Intermodal South Amer- ica, Breakbulk Americas and others. Particularly in project and break- bulk cargo, the Seaway offers a highly competitive and often underutilized option. Our trade corridor remains a viable option to bring these compo- nents into the Great Lakes to US Mid- west markets. The ports and terminal network across the Great Lakes having heavy lift, Ro-Ro and other multimodal con- nections further support these markets considering the Seaway. The further catalyst for these inbound projects is often the availability of outbound movements with agri-products and other bulk commodities. The Great SPONSORED CONTENT signals support to adopt the NZF as is, which will help IMO regulations to ensure a just and equitable transition.” This revenue would be critical for vulnerable countries who would need it most, and as such they are advocat- ing for it to remain, standing strong against oil producing countries such as Saudia Arabia and Russia, who want to remove the carbon pricing element. In particular, African countries have been in favor of the revenue. Dr. Dola Oluteye, Senior Research Fellow in Energy and Transport Policy, Univer- sity College London, said: “Decisions at the IMO over these two weeks is critical to Africa’s economic and energy future, demonstrable in the rising voice of the African governments contribut- ing meaningfully to shaping of the Net-Zero Framework guidelines. Several African nations are demanding that the proposed multi-billion-dol- lar Net-Zero Fund is used to support Africa in recogni- tion of the level of impact of the Framework. Africa can become the world’s renew- able energy hub equal to the share of its natural endowments. Demand for a just transition is critical to ensuring the Net-Zero Framework does not set her back. As such, the Fund is non-negotia- ble for her 1.4 billion people,” and Jamie Yates, Climate and Renewable Energy Manager, Pacific Environment, said: “Member states concluded a productive week in London at ISWG 21, advanc- ing key technical details of the Net Zero Framework and building broad consen- sus around the Net-Zero Fund as one of its foundational pillars. Support came from across all world regions, and Afri- can and Pacific voices were particularly clear: the NZF must remain the basis for IMO climate action. Member states should heed that call.” Oil Producers’ Opposition The vast majority of countries opposing the various regulations are oil producing, with the US completely rejecting the NZF. As such, it comes across as an act of resistance against the global dominance of oil for coun- tries to continue to support the NZF. Anaïs Rios, Senior Shipping Policy Officer, Seas At Risk, said: “Recent geopolitical instability may give the illusion that we are all reliant on fossil fuels but that is simply not true: ship- ping can decarbonize and must. Next week, countries must come together to support a strong Net-Zero Frame- work, including dedicated funding for those who need it most, and we are relying on the EU to stand united. Delaying or watering down the very regulation designed to clean up ship- ping leads us down a dangerous path towards weak action that comes too late. The ocean, the climate and ulti- mately, the people, will pay the price,” and Madadh MacLaine, Secretary General, ZESTAs, said: “The IMO’s discussion on clean energy guide- lines is not a technical footnote - these guidelines will form the core, laying the very foundations that will deter- mine the effectiveness of the colossal work done at the IMO on GHG emis- sions over the last years. They are the rules that determine which fuels win. Get them wrong, and we lock in a generation of vessels running on fuels that look clean on paper but deliver little for a clean energy transition. Hydrogen is proven and ready to scale but cannot compete against false solu- tions propped up by weak accounting methodologies. The window to set this right is open now. We need to get this right before it slams shut.” Biofuels Under Fire Another topic of discussion was biofuels. Biofuels have come under fire for being promoted as an ecof- riendly alternative to oil, while the production of biofuel from sources such as palm and soy leads to increased deforestation. Aparajit Pandey, Prin- cipal, Rocky Mountain Institute, said: “Biofuels may have a role to play in shipping’s transition, but only where they are assessed with real rigor. That means properly accounting for indi- rect land use change and taking a care- ful, full-systems view of their broader environmental and social impacts. Without that, there is a real risk of overstating climate benefits and cre- ating unintended consequences else- where.” While biofuel’s benefits in replacing oil cannot be overstated, the potential consequences must also be carefully weighed. Biofuel is an important piece of the puzzle that is decarbonizing shipping, but it is not the only piece, and it is important for everyone to remember that. Reducing emissions is not an easy task, but countries coming together to work on the NZF is movement in the correct direction. Michael Petroni, Policy Analyst, Climate Action Tracker, said: “While not perfect, in its current form the Net-Zero Frame- work is the IMO’s most ambitious emissions reductions mechanism to date. It will likely put shipping on a path to limit temperature warming to 2°C, if all other sectors followed the same level of action. It would be a crucial tool for driving the uptake of zero-emissions fuel for the shipping industry. Without it, we’re likely to see shipping emissions continue rising through to 2050. Further strengthen- ing of the NZF is still needed to align with a 1.5°C compatible pathway.” The Net-Zero Framework and clean energy as a whole is not a minor discussion. The ramifications of deci- sions made now will ripple through the future, as the environment is changed based on the actions of the global com- munity. Madadh MacLaine, Secretary General, ZESTAs, added: “The IMO’s discussion on clean energy guide- lines is not a technical footnote - these guidelines will form the core, laying the very foundations that will deter- mine the effectiveness of the colossal work done at the IMO on GHG emis- sions over the last years. They are the rules that determine which fuels win. Get them wrong, and we lock in a gen- eration of vessels running on fuels that look clean on paper but deliver little for a clean energy transition. Hydro- gen is proven and ready to scale but cannot compete against false solutions propped up by weak accounting meth- odologies. The window to set this right is open now. We need to get this right before it slams shut.” “While not perfect, in its current form the Net-Zero Framework is the IMO’s most ambitious emis- sions reductions mechanism to date…” Michael Petroni, Policy Analyst, Climate Action Tracker (PROGRESS – continued from page 30) (POISED – continued on page 38)
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