Shipping corridor between Germany, Sweden

The Port of Trelleborg, the Port of Lübeck and the German ferry company TT-Line want to build a green shipping corridor between Lübeck-Travemünde, Germany, and Trelleborg, Sweden, which should be free of fossil fuels by 2040 at the latest.

To this end, the four parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at this year’s Port of Lübeck Meeting in the Lübeck Music and Congress Hall.

The project is considered a green shipping corridor within the meaning of the Clydebank Declaration, which both Germany and Sweden have signed. The MoU and the planned activities are directly related to the EU’s “Fit for 55” strategy. The corridor is also accompanied and supported by the transport ministries of Transport of Sweden and Germany.

The cooperation should not only serve as an innovative platform and exchange of information, but the goal of all partners is to decarbonize transport in the partners’ direct sphere of influence as well as to influence the entire transport chain of the goods concerned. Concrete projects and activities are to be developed jointly, among other things.

As a first project, both ports will build further shore power connections and the shipping company TT-Line will convert four ships in its fleet to shore power. As a result, CO2 emissions are completely avoided during the ships’ time in port.

The fields of activity of the Green Shipping Corridor Lübeck-Travemünde Trelleborg deal with hinterland transport, port operations with vehicle fleet and energy supply, shipping, investigation of business models/incentives with regard to CO2 savings as well as the development of approaches for the measurement of certain indicators of what should characterise a green corridor.

The section between the Port of Lübeck and the Lübeck-Trelleborg Sea Route and the Port of Trelleborg is the first important step has begun.