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In the ports and shipping industry, we know that the future must be decarbonized.
A container ship is docked at the Port of Vancouver in B.C.
The photo was taken by Justin Sullivan.
The CEO of the Port of Vancouver has spent the year trying to keep goods moving amid unprecedented supply chain snarls and a catastrophic flood, and called on the business community to invest in infrastructure to reduce the risk of future trade bottlenecks.
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Robin Silvester gave an update on the state of the port to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. The backdrop for this year's "State of the Port" address was not normal, given British Columbia faced another onslaught of rain, and all the goods stuck on the dock are a contributing factor to the most severe inflation threat since the early 1990s.
Silvester said that the impacts of climate change have been seen over the last two weeks in B.C. In the ports and shipping industry, we know that the future must be decarbonized.
B.C. was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 The weather event, known as an atmospheric river, created a dense mass of travelling water vapour and dropped a month's worth of rain on the Fraser Valley in two days. It caused mudslides that wrecked highways and damaged railways, severing the Port of Vancouver from the rest of the country. Environment Canada is warning of the possibility of bad weather this weekend.
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Silvester said that the B.C. incident is part of a larger trend of disastrous climate events taking place around the world. B.C. experienced a deadly wildfire season this summer.
Silvester said the port authority is working with federal and provincial governments on a joint supply-chain recovery working group to work on flood recovery and to prepare for future climate events.
He said that they are trying to create a framework that supports and enables industry across the port and its supply chain to switch to cleaner fuels.
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Liquid natural gas is being provided to fuel ships at the port until green ammonia and hydrogen are more viable alternatives. Silvester told the board of trade about the Clean Technology Initiative, a program in partnership with the provincial government to provide funding for trial and adoption of low- and zero-emission fuels and technologies at the port.
He highlighted two examples that are already being used.
Silvester talked about issues facing the port, such as limited industrial land for container storage as well as logistics and distribution centres. He said that the data collection and corridor infrastructure have made it easier to avoid heavy backups at ports.
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The Port of Vancouver is one of the biggest import and export gateways in North America and has been at the forefront of supply-chain disruptions that have hurt the Canadian economy. The Bank of Canada pledged to keep inflation at two per cent, but the consumer price index increased in October by a bigger amount than the previous year. The economic recovery will likely be affected by the damage caused by the floods.
Silvester said that a surge of demand exceeding capacity can overwhelm a trade system. That should give us pause here in Canada.
Email: bbbharti@postmedia.com
