This paper aims to contribute to a potential solution by providing insights into the external costs associated with berthed vessels in four ports in Spain: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca, Pasaia and Tenerife. Local as well as global external costs will be presented. Contact online >>
This paper aims to contribute to a potential solution by providing insights into the external costs associated with berthed vessels in four ports in Spain: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca, Pasaia and Tenerife. Local as well as global external costs will be presented.
External cost derived from the emissions of CO 2, NO x, SO x, and PM from berthed ships in the Spanish port system during 2016 are estimated providing a Spain-wide empirical evidence into where the highest externalities exist and where, on a port by port level, the introduction of cold ironing could yield the highest potential on reducing said
A long run multioutput cost function for the infrastructure services of Spanish ports is estimated using 286 observations on 26 ports during 11 years. Cargo specific marginal costs and the degree of economies of scale and scope are calculated up to a port level. Results show that liquid bulk and non-containerised general cargo present the
Calculating externalities in transport: how intermodality significantly reduces external costs. 778 million euros. This is the estimated amount of savings in negative externalities that the use of rail transport and short sea shipping (SSS) in Port of Barcelona in 2020 has implied for society and environment.
Two definitions of undesirable outputs are used: total local external costs and local external costs per capita. In both versions of the model, we find evidence of high levels of environmental inefficiency in Spanish ports, with over half of the ports found to be inefficient.
A long run multioutput cost function for the infrastructure services of Spanish ports is estimated using 286 observations on 26 ports during 11 years. Cargo specific marginal costs and the degree of economies of scale and scope are calculated up to a port level. Results show that liquid bulk and non-containerised general cargo present the lowest and largest marginal cost, respectively. Increasing returns to scale are present in general and for each and every port. A scope analysis indicates that port specialisation is not appropriate from the viewpoint of infrastructure.
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DOI: https://doi /10.1023/A:1016386131712
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778 million euros. This is the estimated amount of savings in negative externalities that the use of rail transport and short sea shipping (SSS) in Port of Barcelona in 2020 has implied for society and environment. With these intermodal services, approximately 330,000 trucks have been withdrawn from the road, with the consequent reduction in environmental impact and other costs that this represents. A 97% reduction in external transport costs. We explain the methodology used with the advice of MCRIT, a specialized consultancy.
Noelia Martín is the Head of Hinterland, Business Strategy at the Port of Barcelona.
Efrain Larrea is aTransportation and Sustainability Consulting Engineer at MCRIT.
External costs or externalities are the social costs generated by transport operations due to their negative impact, both locally and globally, on the environment and the welfare of society. These are mainly CO₂ emissions, pollution and also accidents, lost time due to congestion, noise, and the wear and tear of infrastructures, mainly.
These costs are not perceived as such and are not being borne directly by the user, unlike the so-called internal costs like wear and tear on the vehicle itself, the cost of fuel, time and transport fees, among others. If the user does not take into account external costs when making a transport decision, he or she has no incentive to reduce them by using alternative and more sustainable modes of transport with the environment and society.
In this context, quantifying the external costs linked to the different modes of transport is key to establishing any internalization measure and assessing the impact on improving the sustainability of modal shift from road to rail and short sea shipping . The Commission has developed a methodology for these calculations, as we will see below, and the Port of Barcelona has used it to quantify the savings in externalities resulting from the Port''s intermodal offer.
The procedure used is based on the official calculation methodology of the European Commission, the Handbook on the external costs of transport, which is periodically updated and improved. The latest version is from 2019.
In this methodology, a very detailed analysis of the marginal costs involved in each new transport unit introduced in the distribution networks is carried out, whether by road, rail or sea. The impact on various elements that form what we call transport externalities is assessed individually, with rigorous scientific studies, and a price is eventually assigned. This allows to establish the unit cost of transporting goods in terms of externalities for each mode, highlighting the important differences that exist between these modes.
The following items are included in the calculation:
The results of this methodology for evaluating externalities shows that road transport has a much higher negative impact than rail and maritime transport, up to 10 times higher for each tonne and kilometer transported. The following table shows the average values of externalities for each of the modes:
Table 1 Economic valuation of externalities by concept and mode in c € / ton-km:
The Commission plans to promote rail freight transport, which has to double by 2050, and promote intermodality
The estimation of the impact of the use of rail and the SSS in terms of externalities depends on each individual route, since elements such as the distance traveled by each mode condition the results that will be obtained. It is done with the values of the previous table and the following calculation algorithm:
Of all the modes of freight transport, the road has the highest impact on externalities. This is mainly due to the type of energy it uses, based on fossil fuels in almost 100%.
On the other hand, the railroad uses predominantly electricity (on average, in 2019 in Europe 83% of the ton-km in rail was by electric train as opposed to 17% of diesel) and this significantly reduces gas emissions from greenhouse effect and pollutants. This does not mean that the railway is emission-free, since the electricity consumed in Europe comes in part from non-renewable sources (coal, oil and combined cycle). Still, the resulting impacts are well below those of the road.
In the case of SSS and in general, navigation for the transport of goods, fossil fuels are also the main source of energy as in the case of the road, but the energy efficiency of ships is much higher than that of trucks. When we count all the externalities, these become even lower than those of the rail, because during navigation there is no interference with land mobility. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that current dock electrification projects in many European ports will reduce the externalities linked to pollutants and noise emissions, making this mode even more attractive at an environmental level.
In Barcelona, the railway has grown significantly in the last decade, achieving high share: 14% in containers and 35% in cars
In recent years, the Port of Barcelona has managed to consolidate a wide range of regular and frequent rail services for containers with the center and northeast of the peninsula, which has helped to substantially increase the competitiveness of the foreign trade sector in these regions.
Companies in the large distribution, agri-food, fashion, household appliances and chemical products sectors, among others, use the rail to import or export their products through the Port because it is a reliable, competitive and sustainable alternative to road transport. In the automotive sector, the main production plants in Spain are connected by rail to the Port of Barcelona, which they use to carry out their exports.
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