On Thursday, 12th of April, the ''Declaration of Nijmegen'' was signed by a lead group of twenty parties who declared to accelerate the greening of the inland shipping sector. Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, also signed the declaration and made clear that ''speed is required''. The authorities and businesses that also signed promise to do everything in their power to reduce CO2 emissions in inland shipping by 20 percent by 2030.
The participants of Ports and the City were enthusiastic about the prospect of providing inland vessels with clean engines and clean fuels. ''Inland shipping has a distinct advantage if you compare its CO2 emissions to those of trucks or trains,'' says Van Nieuwenhuizen. ''In order to maintain this advantage, inland vessels are going to have to make the transition to cleaner technology.''
The ultimate aim in the Declaration of Nijmegen is to have a climate-neutral inland shipping sector by 2050. ''In other words, the sector has no time to lose,'' the minister emphasises. ''A truck can already be replaced after six or seven years by a cleaner one, equipped with the latest technologies, whereas a ship lasts forty years on average.''
The CME project was represented by Walvoorzieningen NL and the city of Arnhem. Arnhem presented the overall idea of CME while WVnld presented the cold ironing project in Arnhem.
