Smarter Ports, Cleaner Shipping 

By helping ships arrive at exactly the right time, digital coordination could reduce shipping emissions without changing fuels.

Every year, nearly 90% of global trade travels by sea. Yet one of shipping’s biggest sources of unnecessary emissions often happens before a vessel even reaches port, as ships spend hours, or even days, waiting at anchor for a berth to become available. The Horizon Europe MISSION project aims to change that by using interoperable digital tools, real-time data, and artificial intelligence to optimise port calls and reduce fuel consumption.

Julia Pahl, Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, and José Giménez, Port Logistics Director at Fundación Valenciaport, discuss how better coordination, not necessarily new fuels, could make global shipping cleaner and more efficient.

José Giménez: A port call may sound simple, it is essentially a ship arriving at a port, berthing at a terminal, and carrying out loading or unloading operations. But behind that seemingly straightforward process lies a highly complex network of actors. Shipping companies, terminal operators, port authorities, pilots, service providers, and many others all need to coordinate their activities for a vessel to enter and leave efficiently.

For decades, this coordination has relied heavily on manual processes and operational experience. The system works, but as global logistics have become more complex, its inefficiencies have become much more visible. Ships often arrive before a berth is available, forcing them to wait at anchor, which creates congestion, increases fuel consumption, and generates unnecessary emissions. The real challenge today is not moving ships, it is coordinating all the organisations involved as efficiently as possible.

Julia Pahl: I would not necessarily describe them as inefficiencies in the traditional sense. Shipping has functioned successfully for hundreds of years. What has changed is not shipping itself but the capabilities of digital information systems.

Today we can exchange information much faster and in far more structured ways than before. However, different organisations within the maritime sector have adopted digitalisation at different speeds. There are also questions of trust, because many stakeholders are understandably cautious about sharing operational information that may affect their business models.

MISSION addresses this gap by enabling stakeholders to exchange key operational information in a structured, interoperable way. Better information sharing allows everyone involved to plan more effectively, react to unexpected events such as weather disruptions and coordinate decisions much earlier than has traditionally been possible.

Julia Pahl: One common practice today is “first come, first served.” Many terminals prefer operating this way because it keeps their equipment fully utilised. The downside is that ships often sail at full speed only to wait outside the port once they arrive.

MISSION focuses on improving information rather than changing commercial priorities. If shipping companies know in advance how many vessels are already waiting for a berth, they can decide to reduce speed during the voyage instead of burning fuel while waiting at anchor. This concept, often called virtual arrival or just-in-time arrival, allows vessels to maintain their position in the operational queue while significantly reducing unnecessary fuel consumption.

Our platform provides reliable information on important operational milestones and timestamps, allowing stakeholders to continuously update their plans. For example, the departure time of a vessel from its previous port can already be shared with the destination port, enabling everyone to adjust schedules long before the ship arrives.

José Giménez: Alternative fuels are undoubtedly important, but they also face major challenges. We still do not know whether they can be produced at the scale required for a global fleet of around 100,000 commercial vessels. Questions remain around availability, costs, and long-term financial viability.

Data-driven operational improvements, however, can be implemented today using existing ships and existing infrastructure. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, and real-time data exchange offer immediate opportunities to reduce emissions without waiting for an entirely new fuel ecosystem.

These are what I would call the low-hanging fruits of maritime decarbonisation. By improving the way vessels and ports coordinate their activities, we can achieve measurable environmental benefits in the near term while the industry continues developing future fuel technologies.

Julia Pahl: Many decisions still depend heavily on human judgement and fragmented information. Ports and terminals constantly adjust schedules based on weather conditions, berth availability and operational changes, but much of this information is exchanged manually between different stakeholders.

MISSION does not replace human decision-making. Instead, it provides much better decision support by ensuring that everyone has access to the same structured operational information in real time. This allows stakeholders to make more informed decisions, whether that means slowing a vessel down, adjusting berth allocation or reorganising port resources.

The goal is not automation for its own sake but enabling better coordination that ultimately reduces waiting times, fuel consumption and emissions.

Julia Pahl: Ships waiting outside ports continue running auxiliary engines while anchored, consuming fuel and generating emissions that directly affect air quality around port cities.

If vessels instead reduce speed during their voyage and arrive precisely when a berth becomes available, those emissions can largely be avoided. This improves fuel efficiency for shipping companies while also reducing environmental impacts for ports and surrounding communities.

Our demonstrations are currently underway, so we do not yet have final performance results, but evaluating these environmental benefits is one of the project’s key objectives.

José Giménez: Today I would say the biggest challenge is no longer technology.

Over the last five years, digital technologies have evolved enormously. Artificial intelligence, advanced data platforms, and interoperability solutions are now readily available. From a technical perspective, implementing these systems has become much easier than it was even a few years ago.

The greater challenge lies in people and organisational culture. Port call optimisation requires multiple organisations to trust each other, exchange operational information, and adapt long-established ways of working. Coordinating physical assets is relatively straightforward; coordinating people, business cultures and organisational habits is much more difficult. That cultural transformation is probably the greatest challenge we face today.

Julia Pahl: We are currently entering the demonstration phase. Throughout the summer and into the end of the year, our demonstration sites will evaluate the platform and associated digital services under real operational conditions. 

Rather than comparing ports against one another, our objective is to demonstrate that just-in-time port call optimisation can work across different operational environments and different levels of digital maturity. Some ports already have highly advanced digital systems, while others are still developing them. One of our goals is to show that interoperability can deliver value regardless of those differences. 

Julia Pahl: If we imagine the future, vessels would automatically transmit departure information the moment they leave one port. Artificial intelligence would continuously calculate estimated arrival times using weather forecasts and operational updates. Destination ports would automatically adjust berth planning, while vessels could receive updated sailing instructions that allow them to reduce speed without losing their place in the queue.

Eventually, much of this process could become highly automated. Ships might communicate directly with digital port systems, berth allocation could happen automatically and loading operations could be synchronised with minimal delays. Humans would play an essential supervisory role, particularly regarding safety and cybersecurity, but many routine manual coordination tasks could become largely automated – to support, but not to replace the human.

Whether all of that happens within ten years remains to be seen, but it is certainly a direction worth working towards.

José Giménez: International trade has continued growing for decades despite geopolitical crises, wars, and economic disruptions. That underlying trend is unlikely to disappear.

Our responsibility is therefore to make the system supporting global trade as efficient as possible. More efficient shipping does not necessarily create additional demand by itself, but it can reduce unnecessary fuel consumption, lower emissions and improve logistics for the trade that will continue to exist regardless.

Making international shipping cleaner benefits not only highly developed economies but also developing regions that increasingly rely on global trade to improve living standards.

Julia Pahl: Efficiency primarily affects costs. If operations become more efficient, transport becomes cheaper and more accessible. While that may influence trade patterns, our focus is on reducing unnecessary emissions from processes that already exist today.

There is considerable room to improve how shipping operates without changing the fundamental role maritime transport plays in connecting economies around the world. The technologies exist now – the next step is ensuring they are implemented effectively and collaboratively.