Shoreside Power at Berths for Inland Navigation Vessels – How to Make Available a Harmonised System of Shoreside Power Access on the Rhine to Reduce Air and Noise Pollution

Abstract

The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR) is an international organisation that exercises an essential regulatory role in the navigation of the Rhine. It is active in the technical, legal, economic and environmental fields. In all its areas of action, its work is guided by the efficiency of transport on the Rhine, safety, social considerations, and respect for the environment. Many of the CCNR’s activities now reach beyond the Rhine and are directly concerned with European navigable waterways more generally. So as to take into particular account the challenges of climate change, in 2018 the transport ministers of the Member States of the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland) signed a declaration, the so-called Mannheim Declaration, to reassert the objective of largely eliminating greenhouse gases and other pollutants by 2050 and to task the CCNR to develop a roadmap to achieve these goals. These goals that are intended to protect the environment and the climate concern not only inland navigation vessels’ propulsion systems but also the on-board power supply for operating machinery, for example when at berth. Last but not least, the conflicts over berths on the Rhine in city centres demonstrate that joint efforts are required to reduce or largely eliminate both pollutant and noise emissions. Supplying inland navigation vessels with shore power can play an important role in reducing emissions and noise and helps achieve the objectives of the Mannheim Declaration, while also securing attractive city centre berths for future generations of boatmen. Together with its stakeholders, the CCNR works on a regular basis to identify technical and regulatory gaps in standards and provisions, and proposes activities that aim at a harmonised implementation of shoreside power infrastructure on the Rhine.