An American push to establish “green shipping corridors” is key to reducing carbon emissions from the shipping industry, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday while touring the port of Yokohama near Tokyo.
Emissions from maritime transport account for about 3 per cent of total global emissions from human activities. Some 40 per cent of Yokohama’s emissions come from its port. The Port of Los Angeles signed an agreement in March with port authorities of Yokohama and Tokyo to establish the so-called green shipping corridors, aiming to promote emissions reductions through use of net-zero emissions vessels and other efforts to reduce the flow of greenhouse gases from ports and shipping.
The Biden administration is pushing to speed up the transition to renewable and less polluting energy sources. While attending G7 meetings in April in Sapporo, northern Japan, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm toured the world’s first and only liquefied hydrogen carrier, a ship that showcases Japanese efforts to transform heavily polluting coal into emissions-free hydrogen power.
In a joint statement, Buttigieg and other G7 ministers reiterated their countries’ determination to support free and open navigation and expressed strong opposition to any attempts to change the “peacefully established status of territories by force” – a reference to concerns over China’s growing military presence and its long-standing claim to the separately governed island of Taiwan.