21st World Conference of Cities and Ports in Dunkirk, Digi Mart USA News (Dunkirk, France): Nearly 400 participants from 40 nationalities are meeting for three days in Dunkirk to discuss the challenges shared by port cities around the world. The 21st World Conference of Cities and Ports opened on Tuesday, November 3, and runs for four days.
Representatives of local governments, port authorities and researchers are sharing their experiences and solutions for adapting to the challenges that port cities face and will face. The conference takes place against a backdrop of major international upheaval, including the war in the Middle East.
Bruno Delsalle, director of the AIVP (the International Association of Cities and Ports), said the world is moving from a long period of stability, which allowed globalization and port cities to grow, into an unstable period. He said organizations will need to change their models to cope with that instability.
Delsalle noted that the port of Beirut recently joined the AIVP. He said that, given the Middle East conflict, the region is a sensitive area.
He added that the focus may need to shift away from efficiency at all costs toward contingency plans, referred to as plans A, B and C, that allow constant adaptation.
Climate change is another major theme of the conference. Delsalle said that cities and ports need to harmonize their approaches to flooding and other risks.
He said some cities are threatened immediately, while others face the threat later, and that raising dikes is a solution mainly available to wealthy countries, which may eventually face resource constraints. He said the association is seeking ways to foster interaction among members so that ideas can circulate.
Delsalle listed the key issues as geopolitics, climate change, the energy transition, decarbonization, new industrial sectors, and protecting waterfront port cities from rising sea levels. He said there has been considerable progress, but that the challenges are ongoing and there is always room to do better.
