{"id":128109,"date":"2026-03-25T11:17:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T11:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/?p=128109"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:17:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T11:17:52","slug":"ecowas-steers-continental-consensus-with-african-union-on-green-ports-and-maritime-decarbonization-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/?p=128109","title":{"rendered":"ECOWAS STEERS CONTINENTAL CONSENSUS WITH AFRICAN UNION ON GREEN PORTS AND MARITIME DECARBONIZATION AGENDA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Driving Africa\u2019s transition towards sustainable maritime systems, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Commission), in close collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), convened a high-level Continental Validation Workshop on Green Ports Guidelines, Maritime Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and the Implementation of the Revised African Maritime Transport Charter, bringing together senior continental actors, maritime institutions and technical experts at the ECOWAS Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, on 24 March 2026, for a two-day strategic engagement aimed at aligning Africa\u2019s position and accelerating implementation pathways.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Opening the session, Mr. Chris APPIAH, Director of Transport at the ECOWAS Commission, underscored the urgency of positioning Africa\u2019s maritime sector within global transitions, stressing that \u201cefficiency, operational capacity and trade facilitation must remain at the core of Africa\u2019s response, even as the continent advances towards greener maritime systems,\u201d while cautioning that sustainability measures must reflect Africa\u2019s realities and development priorities. Speaking on behalf of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Dr. Omar Alieu TOURAY, he reaffirmed ECOWAS\u2019 commitment to strengthening maritime governance, enhancing port infrastructure and supporting Member States in building resilient and competitive transport systems.<\/p>\n<p>Delivering a key continental perspective, Dr. Raissa-Julie Ada ALLOGO, Head of Maritime Transport, African Union Commission, called for a unified African voice in global maritime negotiations, noting that \u201cthis is the time for Africa to speak with one voice, to ensure that the transition towards decarbonization remains inclusive, realistic and aligned with the capacities of our Member States.\u201d She highlighted the strategic importance of the Revised African Maritime Transport Charter (2010), recently entered into force, as a cornerstone for modernising Africa\u2019s maritime governance and reinforcing institutional coordination across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Regional maritime organisations further reinforced the operational dimension of the discussions. Dr. Paul ADALIKWU, Secretary General of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), emphasised that green port development is \u201cboth an environmental responsibility and a strategic investment to enhance competitiveness, resilience and efficiency across African ports,\u201d while Mr. Kassim Kaziba MPAATA, Secretary General of the Maritime Organisation for Eastern, Southern and Northern Africa (MOESNA), stressed the need for Africa to reduce structural dependency and build its own maritime capacity to mitigate external shocks. Complementing this, Captain Sunday M. UMOREN, Secretary General of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control, highlighted that compliance with international maritime standards is essential to safeguarding Africa\u2019s participation in global shipping systems and avoiding increased operational costs.<\/p>\n<p>Representing development partners, Madam Bekele Essete ABEBE, on behalf of the German International Cooperation (GIZ), reiterated the importance of strengthening port systems as critical infrastructure for trade, noting that \u201cports remain the backbone of global supply chains, and investing in sustainable and resilient port infrastructure is central to Africa\u2019s economic transformation and climate response.\u201d She reaffirmed GIZ\u2019s continued support to continental initiatives aimed at advancing green port development and maritime sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>The technical sessions, led by the African Union Commission\u2019s consultant team, provided an in-depth presentation of the Handbook\/Guidelines on Green Ports in Africa, based on extensive consultations across Member States. The findings highlighted priority areas including renewable energy integration, electrification of port operations, digitalisation, emissions monitoring, climate resilience and fuels, while emphasising that green ports must be approached as a comprehensive economic and operational transformation rather than a narrow environmental agenda.<\/p>\n<p>The workshop continues on 25 March 2026 with focused working sessions to validate key documents, consolidate Member States\u2019 inputs and adopt a coordinated roadmap for implementation. The outcomes are expected to strengthen Africa\u2019s maritime governance architecture, enhance port performance and position the continent as a proactive and strategic actor in the global transition towards sustainable and decarbonised maritime transport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Driving Africa\u2019s transition towards sustainable maritime systems, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Commission), in close collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), convened a high-level Continental Validation Workshop on Green Ports Guidelines, Maritime Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction and the Implementation of the Revised African Maritime Transport Charter, bringing together senior continental actors, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":128110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,480,12,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-info-cedeao-2","category-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128131,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128109\/revisions\/128131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}