THE ROLE OF PORTS IN DEALING WITH THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AT THE HEART OF THE ROUND TABLE OF PORT DIRECTORS GENERAL OF THE PORTS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION OF WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA
Luanda capital of Angola hosts from 15 to 18 November 2022, the 42nd Annual Council and the 17th Round Table Conference of Managing Directors of Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA). The opening ceremony was chaired by the Angolan Minister of Transport in an atmosphere worthy of PMAWCA.
After the opening ceremony of the 42nd Annual Council of the Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa, made of several speeches including that of the Minister of Transport of Angola, participants immediately began under the leadership of Séraphin BALHAT, the Managing Director of the Pointe-Noire Port Authority, the work of the 17th Round Table Conference of Managing Directors of PMAWCA placed under the theme “The role of ports in the face of the effects of climate change“. A Round Table divided into three sessions that will be the subject of exchanges during the two days.
The first is devoted to the involvement of ports in West and Central Africa in reducing the effects of carbon and options for energy transition by taking stock and drawing up the prospects; the second aims at the involvement of shipowners and maritime organizations in reducing the carbon load and the options considered in this regard; the third session is related to the challenges of accelerating the energy transition for mitigating the effects of climate change and the orientation on port, maritime and logistics sustainability.
At the beginning, Séraphin BALHAT has solemnly set the scene of the work in accordance with the theme chosen for this purpose. He reminded everyone that it was during the conference on the environment in Stockholm, held in 1972 that global warming of the planet was mentioned for the first time. This was followed by a series of conferences and summits during which the participants came to the same conclusion each time: “if we do nothing to reduce them, greenhouse gases will cause our climate to overheat and eventually destroy our environment“. The overheating of the climate therefore has consequences that all of humanity is powerless to prevent. Human activity, he said, which causes the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and ozone to increase in the atmospheric layer, accentuating the greenhouse effect, is largely responsible.
This Round Table on the role of ports in the face of the effects of climate change is held at a time when the attention of humanity is focused on the conference held in CHARM-EL CHEIK, Egypt, on climate change, COP27. In this regard, Seraphim BALHAT drew the attention of the Managing Director of the member ports of PMAWCA to put special emphasis on the preservation of the environment despite the need for development: ” … as we meet here in Luanda, our Heads of State and Government are sounding the alarm, asking that the commitment made by major industries, and therefore major polluters, be honored, in order to help our continent reconcile the need for development and the need to preserve the environment, but while waiting for these funds to be mobilized, our Ports, which for the most part are concentrates of various human activities, either by ships or by our industrial port facilities, must take radical measures to reconcile the ambitions of development and economic profitability with the requirements of preservation of our environment. “
It should be noted that several delegations of the member ports of PMAWCA are taking part in these meetings in Luanda, which will end on 18 November 2022.
By Antoine Dustell Mbama, Correspondent of Maritimafrica in Republic of Congo 
