Article
https://doi.org/10.52783/mjble.142
Sustainability and Decarbonisation Readiness of Indian Ports: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study
Ports are extremely important in terms of sustainability and climate mitigation, but the decarbonisation process is not evenly distributed, particularly in the emerging economies. The research provides cross-sectional data on the preparedness of Indian ports to be sustainable and decarbonised, according to the perception of the stakeholders. The research identifies the enabling conditions as the presence of readiness and not the actual outcomes of the emissions through a readiness based framework. The main data was obtained as a structured survey of 138 maritime stakeholders such as the port authorities, terminal operators, logistics firms, policymakers, consultants, and academics in India. It looked at six dimensions of readiness, including policy and regulatory readiness; institutional capacity and coordination; technological and infrastructure readiness; environmental management practises; stakeholder awareness and engagement; and decarbonisation readiness. According to the descriptive analysis, port of India is seen to be comparatively better prepared in the environmental management practises and policy fit, yet less prepared in technological preparedness and decarbonisation-specific preparedness. The variation among the groups of stakeholders is not that much, which implies that the evaluation of the progress and limitations in the port ecosystem is shared widely. The results indicate that there is a distinct portrayal of disconnect between policy will and ability to execute, indicating the execution and capacity limitations, and not deficient in awareness or direction. Offering both a perception-based national-level assessment, the study can provide baseline empirical data on port sustainability and can provide policy-relevant information on how the Indian port industry can be better decarbonised to enhance decarbonisation preparedness.