The maritime engine of the Spanish economy
The Port de Barcelona handled more than 67 billion euros of foreign trade in 2019, supporting the jobs of 37,000 people. The Wealth Report speaks to Mercè Conesa, chairwoman of the Barcelona Port Authority, about the challenges of sustainable shipping, the rise of e-commerce and walking the dog in the Collserola mountains.
Note: Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
3 minutes to read
Can you give us a little context as to the economic impact the port has on the economic fortunes of Barcelona?
The port handled in 2019 more than EU67bn of foreign trade and more than 37,000 people come to work at the port on a daily basis – that means we’re responsible for about 25% of the maritime overseas trade in Span. We also manage more than 1,200 hectares of land occupying most of the coast of the city of Barcelona.
These figures alone show the importance of the port, but our main contribution to the economy of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Andorra and the south of France is to provide infrastructure and services that help importers and exporters to be competitive in the global markets.
With such a significant amount of business flowing through the port, how do you mitigate its environmental impact to fit with Barcelona’s strategy to be a carbon neutral city by 2050?
We are engaged in 50 simultaneous measures aimed at cutting the emissions of the port activity, which fortunately are less significant than in industrial ports.
By way of example, connecting the ships in the main wharves of the Port of Barcelona to the electrical supply, a project to which we have earmarked more than €60 million, will reduce pollutant emissions of nitrogen oxides by 51% and of particulate emissions by 25% by 2030 – compared to 2017 emissions. The Port has already submitted the application to Red Eléctrica Española (REE) for a high-voltage connection that will bring the energy needed to electrify the docks.
In the meantime, the port is the region’s leader in LNG bunkering for vessels – a process providing liquefied natural gas to fuels ships rather than more polluting heavy fuel oil or marine diesel.
On an international level, the port of Barcelona forms part of the measures of the World Ports Climate Action Program (WPCAP) taken by 11 ports worldwide. This initiative, which emerged from the World Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco in September 2018, is an alliance driven by some of the world's major ports: Los Angeles, Long Beach, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Vancouver, Gothenburg, New York & New Jersey, Amsterdam, Le Havre, Yokohama and Barcelona. We are working together on various projects to reduce the pollutant emissions generated by the maritime industry and port activity and thus help tackle global warming – together all this means we are on the way to be an emissions-neutral port by 2050.
What impact has the pandemic had on the traffic of goods into the port?
It had a significant impact when it comes to passengers (which nearly come to a halt), and when it comes to freight, we had a reduction of approximately 12% of the cargo.
On the opposite side, our logistics activity zone still enjoys an almost 100% occupation, the old port (2 five-star hotels, malls, restaurants) suffered a significant impact as well, and the nautical cluster is recovering quite well.
What, from your perspective, are likely to be the most lasting changes brought about by the pandemic?
The way I see it, COVID-19 will accelerate some trends that we were already seeing in recent years. Changes in personal and collective mobility patters, digitalization, increase in the consumption of digital products instead of physical goods, and pressure towards de-carbonization of the transport industry, are some of the main effects I can see from the pandemic.
Last question - what are your favourite things to do in Barcelona that Wealth Report readers might enjoy?
Walking with my dog through the Collserola mountains; stroll along Rambla Catalunya and Passeig de Gràcia or the Gothic Quarter and the Born; visit museums and cultural centres such as the Miró Foundation, the Picasso Museum, the MNAC or the CCCB; Have an aperitif or lunch in front of the sea; and stay with friends for gastronomic discoveries or a wine tasting.
Photo by Olga Subach on Unsplash