Webinar on 'Greening Challenges and Stage V - perfect match or not?' - Summary & Presentations

Summary

On 28 June 2021, the EU IWT Platform organised an online workshop ‘Greening Challenges and Stage V – Perfect match or not?’.
The aim was to zoom in on challenges and opportunities in the context of IWT greening in the nearby future. We often see that certain ideas and themes are framed in a perspective of distant future – which is, naturally, a correct approach; however we also notice that entrepreneurs need insights for the decisions they are already being made today and tomorrow. Especially in a context of accomplishing zero emission and climate resilient inland transport sector by 2050.

The overall greening framework with its targets to be reached in the future is already well known. The NAIADES III Action Plan 2021-2027 has been recently adopted and will go hand in hand with the earlier provisions of the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy of the European Union . At the same time, ‘uncertainty’ is often used as a key word when discussing the realities on the ground. The sector and its entrepreneurs are facing many practical and valid challenges since there is no business case when talking about greening the fleet.

For that reason, we gathered first-rate providers of innovative technologies – including engine manufacturers, shipyards, representatives of the public sector, as well as members of international associations. They discussed aspects on a technical and industrial level, as well as presenting existing regulations and policy means, while not forgetting about different financial and organisational conditions depending on a specific location. After all, there is no one size fits all! It became clear that also a mental shift needs to take place. In summary, we managed to get insights and a lot of useful information on the possibilities for IWT entrepreneurs today and tomorrow.

Thanks to the participation of 12 excellent speakers who shared their expertise, as well as > 150 attendees in all, this workshop was a great opportunity to exchange views and share information on the opportunities and challenges lying ahead of us to reach future-proof European IWT system.
The IWT Platform is convinced that the results of this workshop will contribute to the ongoing discussions and reflections on greening the future. Possibilities for green & innovative inland navigation do exist and therefore, have to be contemplated and analysed further until their successful implementation.