Our Pacific coast ports are gateways that link goods transported by sea to our North American markets. By linking international shipping to road and rail networks in Canada and the United States, our ports provide significant benefits for port cities and their entire regions, contributing billions of dollars to our local and national economies.

While each port has developed knowledge on environmental issues and initiatives specific to its setting, cooperation and collaboration on environmental protection at our jurisdictions' ports to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions, and to protect ocean resources around ports, will deliver significant benefits to the entire region.

Regional Best Practices:

• West coast port authorities and state and provincial governments are working together to support an application from the Canadian and U.S. governments to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to potentilaly designate the east, west and Gulf coasts of North America as an Emission Control Area (ECA). The designation would result in an 85% reduction in sulphur oxide and particulate matter (IPM) emissions and an 80% reduction in nitrogen oxides over currently allowed limits from the marine sector.
• The West Coast Collaborative is a public-private partnership working to reduce diesel emissions along the West coast of the United States. The collaborative is the first pilot of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Clean Diesel Campaign.
• The Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy is a partnership among Port Metro Vancouver and the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma to reduce port-related diesel and greenhouse gas emissions in the Georgia Basin-Puget Sound airshed via voluntary and collaborative means.