The Regional Workshop on Energy Management in Ports took place from 31 July to 2 August in Auckland, New Zealand, back-to-back with the Conference of the Pacific Maritime Transport Alliance (PMTA), which is the regional association of Pacific ports. Managers and CEOs from the port authorities and administration in Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu attended the workshop. The Workshop was facilitated by Bruce Rowse, Founder and Principal Consultant of 8020GREEN PTY LTD which provides training and advisory services to business and organisations operating in the area of sustainable energy (such as energy efficiency, solar energy), with a focus on Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

The objective of the workshop was to provide participants with methods and tools to improve energy management in ports using the experience from the energy audit conducted by SPC in Fiji in July 2016. The output of this workshop is the agreement with participants on the way forward in the scope of the MTCC-Pacific pilot-project. During the workshop the participants were able to use data collection tools, adapt model of energy management policy and plan for port and discuss the job description for an energy manager. To complement this, the Head of MTCC-Caribbean, Captain Sukhjit Singh, presented on Green Port initiatives and incentives.

The workshop was a good follow-up of the Regional Workshop on Energy Efficiency in Maritime Transport organised by SPC in Vanuatu in December 2016 during which were presented opportunities to reduce GHG emissions from port operations. The MTCC-Pacific Regional Workshop on Energy Management was welcomed by the participants as it provided clear understanding on what could be done to effectively reduce energy consumption and GHG from port operations. It was also the opportunity to acknowledge several initiatives in Pacific port to reduce energy consumption and to propose specific tools for a more consistent approach.