by Life | Sep 13, 2021
– The conference was held on Friday 10 September and was attended by several Andalusian ports and experts in European funds.
– During the interventions of the speakers, the bases and main characteristics of the LIFE 2021-2027 programme designed to achieve sustainability in the port sector were presented.
– This event was held during the European Sustainable Energy Week and was selected by the European Commission, reaching a virtual participation of 50 people.
Brussels, 13.09.2021. The event “Networking Day, Identification and Doubt Resolution LIFE 2021 Next Port Generation – Challenge: Sustainable Ports”, held during the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), was attended by 50 people from the port sector and other organizations. The event was designed to raise awareness of renewable energies in Europe and to share information on initiatives being developed to promote energy saving and renewable energies.
Juan Viesca, Director of European Funds of the Finnova Foundation was in charge of moderating and presenting the conference which was opened by José García, president of the Suncruise Association and the Port Authority of Motril. This inaugural block has counted with the participation of Francisco Salvador, advisor to the Mayor’s Office for Corporate Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Urban Transformation. Next, César Seoánez, project manager of CINEA, the European Commission’s European Executive Agency for Climate, Infrastructure and Environment, explained in detail the characteristics of the LIFE 2021-2027 Programme, which this year has a budget of €5.4 billion.
César Seoánez stressed “the importance of applying for this type of funding to help port entities to become zero-emission entities”. Therefore, he stressed that the call for applications for these funds closes on 30 November, except for the sub-programme for the transition to clean energy, which closes on 12 January 2022. During his speech, he emphasised the four sub-programmes in which projects can be presented to receive European funding: nature and biodiversity, the circular economy and quality of life, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and transition to clean energy. All of them focused on fulfilling the main objective of LIFE, the protection of the environment and the path towards sustainability.
After the explanatory speeches on the European LIFE programme, the presentation of different projects that are being developed with European funding followed. On this occasion, the presentations were given by: Adrián Noheda, director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Area of Finnova, who presented the LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 project approved and currently in force, as a successful case of circular management of organic waste and its transformation into biogas. Together with him and in the subprogramme “Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change”, Lorenzo Vera presented the Green Tours Motril Port project, an idea of sustainability in the tourist destination by sea.
Noheda then presented the block on “Nature and Biodiversity” in which Antonio Bejarano took part, to present the strategic plan of the Port of Seville and several of its projects, which focus on prioritising environmental excellence as one of its main objectives to promote sustainable and proactive management while meeting the needs of depositing, extracting and disposing of dredged materials.
Pepe Betancort, CEO of Construction Industries Global3ccs.com, commented on the sustainable tasks they are carrying out with their project through the renovation and improvement of roofs by using environmentally friendly polymeric products.
To end the presentations, Juan Viesca made a speech in which he showed the multiple European financing options such as the “Next Generation” funds to which the organisations and ports can apply.
After this last intervention, Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of the Finnova Foundation and Carlos Rubio, President of the Port Authority of Malaga and Vice President of Suncruise, closed the day with the intention to continue working together and creating synergies to achieve a modernisation and transformation of the ports through technology and innovation. The participation of the Finnova Foundation in this conference has been given in order to offer the knowledge of its experts on European funding for projects that are within the sector and can be included in this LIFE Programme, designed so that ports and other entities in the sector, have the knowledge to establish synergies and obtain funding.
