DUTCH maritime technology and decarbonisation specialist PortXchange has drawn attention to a British court decision that will draw shipping and ports into liability for Scope 3 downstream emissions.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Finch v Surrey County Council invalidated a fossil fuel permit for failing to assess emissions from the fuel’s end use. That precedent is now fuelling active legal challenges against North Sea oil and gas developments, with Greenpeace, Uplift and Friends of the Earth all filing suits, PortXchange says.
“This is making downstream emissions, known as Scope 3, legally mandatory in Environmental Impact Assessments,” Sjoerd de Jager, managing director and co-founder, said. “For the shipping and ports industry, the implications are immediate and unavoidable. As lawsuits surge, EU regulations tighten and green investors demand full transparency, PortXchange is urging ports to stop delaying and start measuring what matters most.”
PortXchange says the regulators’ position is unequivocal: if emissions are generated, they must be assessed and mitigated. The same principle applies to port expansions and infrastructure development. This legal strategy is gaining momentum, and ports are firmly in scope.
Yet many ports continue to publish ESG reports that overlook the largest source of their emissions: the ships that call, the trucks that queue, and the rail networks on which they depend. This selective reporting is no longer acceptable to courts, regulators, or the public.
“Adding urgency, the European Commission is now reviewing key components of its Fit for 55 climate package, with strong indications that ports will be required to track and report vessel emissions at berth as part of the expanded EU ETS (Emission Trading System) and MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification) schemes.
“For ports that haven’t digitised emissions tracking or haven’t addressed Scope 3 emissions, this won’t just be a legal risk; it will become a commercial one.
“Ports that fail to act now are going to find themselves locked out of the next wave of green growth,” Mr de Jager said. “Scope 3 isn’t just about compliance, it’s about credibility, capital and competitiveness.”
“That commercial pressure is already here. Institutional investors and green bond providers are starting to reject infrastructure projects that exclude Scope 3 emissions from their ESG disclosures. To access EU taxonomy-aligned or sustainability-linked finance, ports will be expected to show end-to-end emissions transparency. “Pretending it’s someone else’s footprint won’t fly with lenders anymore.”