Governments of California and Japan announce new collaboration to clean up pollution at seaports

The U.S.-Japan Competitiveness and Resilience Partnership will make “common and concrete efforts to decarbonize operations.”

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Image Credit: Port of Long Beach

On Tuesday, the governments of California and Japan announced a collaboration between the two countries that will help clean up pollution at seaports, establish green shipping corridors and use zero-emission fuels and maritime technologies. The Letter of Intent was signed by California’s Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration and the Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Tokyo, Japan.

According to a press release, the “governments will share expertise and best practices on critical efforts to cut port-related pollution, including strategies for offshore wind development, and zero-emission fuels and infrastructure.”

“We applaud the newest collaboration between California and Japan to clean up our ports and end ship pollution, and we urge that their collaboration focus on driving immediate emissions reductions, scaling absolute zero well-to-wake emissions technologies and ultimately achieving 100 percent zero-emission shipping by 2040,” Allyson Browne, Climate Campaign Manager for Ports, Pacific Environment, said.

The collaboration under the U.S.-Japan Competitiveness and Resilience Partnership will make “common and concrete efforts to decarbonize operations,” commitment to “commercializing hydrogen fuel cell technologies,” and develop standards for “bunkering of ammonia” at the Ports of Los Angeles, Yokohama, and Kobe, according to a press release. California will do so through the state’s $1.2 billion Port and Freight Infrastructure Program, to be revealed later this month, under the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA).

“According to research by the International Council on Clean Transportation, aligned action by Japan and California to scale zero-emission fuels has the potential to transform clean energy dynamics along the transpacific trade route, the backbone of global trade,” Browne said. “We look forward to supporting both governments to achieve the promise of this Letter of Intent.”

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