Port of Oakland leaders strengthened ties with major trading partner Japan and their joint efforts to green seaport operations during a recent meeting with officials from the Japanese Ministry and the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA).
The meeting, revealed by the port on May 5, builds on a March clean energy trade mission to Japan that included the Port of Oakland, which sends 16% of its exports to Japan. On that mission, officials shared ways to address climate change, bolster green energy efforts and develop new investment and trade opportunities.
Japan is said to be working toward making all its seaports carbon neutral by 2050.
Oakland is also on a sustainable track in its efforts to electrify the port and other projects to create more efficiency and less emissions.
Oakland Board of Port Commission President Barbara Leslie said the port is excited to join in the port operations decarbonization partnership.
“We hope this new collaborative effort will deepen cooperation in our industry to reach our zero-emissions goal set in our Seaport Air Quality 2020 and Beyond Plan that our Board unanimously adopted four years ago,” she said. “For the Port of Oakland’s part, we are proud of the progress we have been able to achieve to drastically reduce emissions from port maritime operations including diesel particulate matter by 86%.”
