Weekly Snapshot

This week, President-elect Trump restated his opposition to wind power, saying turbines are "driving the whales crazy". So, sticking to the maritime theme, let's see how well you know your whale species. If you can find all 5 in the text below, Richard has promised to buy you a drink at our Scottish Parliamentary reception in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

As Trump continues to dominate the headlines after planting subtle hints of his endeavour to acquire the Panama Canal, suggesting the renaming of the 'Gulf of Mexico' to 'Gulf of America'. In Copenhagen, the gray winter weather reflects the gloomy mood amongst Denmark's politicians as Trump has not ruled out using military force to seize Greenland. A similar sentiment is felt across the North Atlantic as Elon Musk launched a barrage of criticism at Sir Keir Starmer and has reportedly discussed ways to oust him from No. 10.

Amongst this hullabaluga, at BPA Towers, along with finalising arrangements for our Scottish Parliamentary Reception, Mark has been planning the second Ports and DNOs Energy Workshop which will focus on tackling the uncertainty and resilience in energy planning. This is taking place ahead of the reception and we look forward to welcoming many ports and DNOs to the event.

Have a great weekend!

Rhona Macdonald

British Ports Association

BPA Regulatory Map Update

This week we published our updated regulatory map which illustrates the broad range of the legislative and policy landscape that UK ports operate within.

In summary we have found that 40% of the regulatory and policy items identified are of some concern to the sector, with 12% of the overall number in need of significant or urgent reform. 

Alongside the map, which is a useful tool for communicating regulatory priorities to government, we have updated our updated directory which includes a description of each entry:

www.britishports.org.uk/regulation

We know that a number of ports like to consider their own compliance with the map and also that ports have found it a useful tool in demonstrating the complexities of port regulatory environment to new staff, board members and other stakeholders. Those outside ports might also find this a useful resource. 

UK SHORE - Shaping the Future of Maritime - Innovate UK Business Connect

The Department for Transport is holder its 'The Future of UK SHORE Event' in London this month.

Over the last few years the DfT’s UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme has allocated over £200m to more than 150 projects to develop clean maritime solutions. The funding leverages over £100m private investment, supports over 300 organisations and benefits all four nations of the UK.

This event will provide an opportunity to explore the future of the UK SHORE programme beyond March 2025. To find out more and register: Click here

2024: Record breaking year for global climate

Today, the Met Office announced that 2024 was the warmest year on record globally. Indeed it was the first year that was likely to be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels: a stark reminder that global temperatures are continuing to rise and that the world is getting close to breaching the Paris Agreement target. The Met Office also said that the next two year outlook was also for almost as warm record temperatures. What this means for sea level rise and extreme weather events remains to be seen but we would assume there will be further global discussions about what can be done collectively.

The full article can be found here.

BPA Feedback/2025 Priorities Survey Reminder

The BPA wishes to remain accountable to our members and ensure we are providing the services required to achieve optimum member satisfaction. We have therefore made a short survey to allow our members to voice what they value most from the BPA, and what can be improved. We have also included several questions to help steer our priorities through 2025 and beyond.   

Take Part: BPA Priorities 2025 Survey Link

It should take no longer than 10 minutes of your time and responses are anonymous. The survey is open to port members and associate members.

We would ask that you kindly complete the survey by Friday 31 January 2025.

We thank you for your support over the past year and we look forward to continuing our work supporting UK ports in 2025.