Analysis of the evolution of Brazilian Ports’ environmental performances

Resumen

Worldwide, communities living near the ports and environmentalists put pressure on port authorities to mitigate their environmental impacts. Water and air pollution are the major environmental impacts of ports. In 2011, Brazil, through the National Agency of Waterway Transportation (ANTAQ), took an important step in the direction of environmental monitoring and control in national ports. ANTAQ signed a cooperation agreement with the Interdisciplinary Center for Transport Studies at the University of Brasilia (CEFTRU/UnB) to develop methodology for calculating the environmental performance of port facilities. The result of this cooperation is the Environmental Performance Index, known as IDA, which assumes values ​​between zero and one, including the extremes (0 ≤ IDA ≤ 1). Optimum port environmental performance is reached when the index is equal to 1. ANTAQ computes IDA for thirty Brazilian ports located in the North, Northeast, South and Southeast and administered by federal, state or local agencies. This article analyzes the evolution of environmental performance in Brazilian ports and investigates whether environmental performance differed between ports. The period of study comprises the first half of 2012 until the first half of 2016. We applied means comparison tests. Some results were: a) environmental performance was lower in the ports administered directly by the federal government when compared to the environmental performance of the delegated ports; b) the environmental performance of the ports of the macro-regions South / Southeast was higher than in the ports of the macro-regions North, Northeast. The article is not dedicated to understanding the reasons for differences in port environmental performance during the period considered. That should be the subject of additional research.