Freight News, Sea
Ports: a practical guide to climate change
[ January 8, 2026 // Chris Lewis ]The Resilience4Ports (R4P) group has issued new guidance to help the industry build long-term resilience in the face of climate change. The Port Decision Makers Guide to Climate Risk Assessment (CRA), unveiled at COP30, aims to ensure port leaders can better understand and implement Climate Risk Assessments (CRAs), a structured process designed to identify, evaluate and prioritise risks such as rising sea levels and flooding to extreme wind or temperatures. The tool covers physical assets, as well as digital systems.
R4P is led by the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and supported by Arup, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
R4P director, Dr Darshana Godaliyadde, said: “Climate change-related risks have the potential to completely shut down parts of the global logistics network, the financial, social and environmental consequences of which would be dramatic on both a local and international scale.
“Calls for port actors to mobilise are growing, but all too often there is limited funding or tools available to empower them to make meaningful, long-lasting changes. While the CRAs won’t stop sea levels from rising, they are a vital tool for decision-makers to assess the risk and build a roadmap to address these pressing challenges throughout the port value chain. Our guidance is designed to provide actionable, concrete steps to building robust CRAs, so we hope port leaders worldwide will take advantage of it to understand and manage climate risks while also accessing appropriate climate finance mechanisms.”
Chairman of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Thomas Thune Andersen, added: “Higher temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent and severe weather patterns will increasingly expose vulnerabilities in port infrastructure, particularly in small island developing states and emerging ocean economies, where the impact of these changes will be felt hardest. Overcoming these challenges will require significant investment, mobilising a vast amount of resources to adapt our ports and build resilience into our supply chains.
“The Resilience4Ports initiative is playing a vital role in this transition, convening key actors across the port ecosystem to work together with a collaborative mindset, rather than a competitive one. The Climate Risk Assessment Guidance, launched at COP30, is this vision in practice. It will help address capacity gaps for decision makers throughout the port value chain, providing a holistic and financeable approach to climate adaptation. Together, we can future-proof port systems and, in doing so, drive better working conditions, healthier ecosystems, and new access to capital for existing and emerging ports around the world.”