Climate change adaptation measures in ports

INDEX

• Climate change measures becoming increasingly important at ports
• Institutional design and support measures to support climate change adaptation in ports
• Increasing social demand for risk assessment
• Current status of climate change adaptation in ports and the role of PACIFIC CONSULTANTS

Climate change measures becoming increasingly important at ports

Implementing measures to adapt to the various impacts of climate change on infrastructure such as ports, roads, and bridges, and maintaining their functionality is extremely important for supporting the lives of the people. Ports in particular are home to many industries, including power plants, refineries, steel mills, and chemical plants, and much of the resources and energy used there passes through ports. More than 99% of Japan's trade volume is transported by sea by ship, and of course passenger ships also arrive and depart from the wharves. It is no exaggeration to say that maintaining port functionality is the lifeline of Japan, a maritime nation.

However, threats to the stable operation of ports are increasing. Not only are tsunamis expected to hit from major earthquakes such as the Nankai Trough earthquake, but the possibility of flooding damage is also increasing due to rising sea levels caused by global warming and increased wave heights and tidal deviations caused by larger typhoons. In the future, in order to respond to climate change, it will be necessary to protect ports from flooding by raising seawalls and other measures, and to maintain their logistics and industrial functions.

Ports are managed by local governments, such as the prefectures where they are located. Ports are also home to a variety of entities, and are used for both public purposes and private business activities. Port sites are a mixture of public and private land, and both quays (facilities for unloading goods and mooring ships) and revetments (facilities to protect the land behind them) are public and private.

Therefore, even if one entity takes measures to protect against flooding, the effectiveness may be limited if flooding occurs from other locations. Even if the seawalls are continuous, if they are at different heights, flooding will occur from the lower parts, and if the construction dates differ, flooding will occur from the unconstructed parts. In order to improve the protective functions of a port, all parties involved must set common goals and take measures at the same time under the same construction policy. This is where the concept of "collaborative protection" was introduced.

To achieve collaborative protection, the Port and Harbor Act was also amended (promulgated on April 23, 2025) to include the following three new points regarding "preservation of ports in response to sea level rise due to climate change."
Establishment of a collaborative protection planning system to promote public-private collaborative efforts, such as raising seawall heights.
Establishment of a collaborative protection council consisting of port administrators, companies located in the port, etc. to develop and implement the plan.
Establishment of an agreement system to promote efforts based on the collaborative defense plan

A concrete example of collaborative protection efforts is as follows:

1. The impact of climate change
Analysis and minor changes to port plans

Analyze the impact of climate change and consider making minor changes to port plans, such as setting out policies to appropriately respond to rising mean sea levels due to climate change.

2. Establishment of a Joint Protection Council
Consideration of timing and level of adaptation

Organize a council of port administrators, facility owners, municipalities, academic experts, port users, etc. to consider the timing and level of adaptation.

3. Collaborative protection planning and
Implementing measures

A joint protection plan will be created based on the results of discussions at the joint protection council, and relevant parties will implement measures.

With the concept of collaborative protection now in place, port authorities can now call for establishment of a collaborative protection council based on the Port and Harbor Law and begin considering countermeasures. Alternatively, a company considering raising the height of its seawall to strengthen its own disaster prevention measures can request the port authority to "establish a collaborative protection council," as it believes that this will not be effective unless the entire port takes action.

Institutional design and support measures to support climate change adaptation in ports

Along with the introduction of the concept of collaborative protection, the technical standards for port facilities were also revised. The numerical values used in designing wind, tide levels, and waves were changed from "based on actual measured or estimated values" to "taking into account changes over time during the design service life of the facility." This clearly states that the impact of climate change must be taken into account.

Additionally, to support the formulation of collaborative defense plans based on the revised Port and Harbor Act, the Port and Harbor Bureau of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Tourism published two guidelines in June 2025. One is the "Guidelines for the Preparation of Collaborative Defense Plans" and the other is the "Guidelines for Climate Change Risk Assessment Methods for Port Companies."

The former is aimed primarily at port administrators and provides practical guidance on creating plans for "collaborative protection" undertaken jointly by the public and private sectors. The latter is aimed primarily at private port companies, explaining specific points regarding the assessment of physical risks posed by rising sea levels and increased typhoon intensity, particularly the risk of flooding from storm surges and tsunamis, so that they can begin disclosing information about climate change. It presents methods suited to the considerations of port companies, from qualitative assessments to detailed assessments using numerical analysis.

Until now, technical standards have not targeted uncertain factors such as "increased external forces due to climate change," and naturally there was no consideration that these external forces would change and increase year by year. As a result, designs that took into account external forces predicted 50 years from now, for example, had not been carried out because "it was unclear whether they would actually occur." However, with this revision of the law, it is now possible to design with specific assumptions about future external forces, and it is now also possible to adopt the concept of "adaptive adaptation," which involves responding in stages based on the assumption that external forces will gradually increase.

The government has also made it clear that it will take budgetary measures to promote collaborative protection efforts. In addition to supporting port administrators in creating collaborative protection plans (by subsidizing the costs), measures include reducing the fixed asset tax on facilities that private business sectors acquire or improve as part of collaborative protection measures, such as seawalls and tide embankments.

Increasing social demand for risk assessment

It's not that disaster prevention measures for ports haven't been discussed at all up until now. For example, there's something called a "port business continuity plan (BCP)." It's an action plan for large-scale disasters and a peacetime management plan that makes it possible. It defines response procedures to ensure that a port's essential functions can be maintained to a minimum even in the event of an earthquake, which has a low probability of occurring but is expected to cause significant damage if it does occur, and the resulting tsunami. Following Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the Fundamental Plan for National Resilience was established, with the goal of achieving a 100% formulation rate for ports of a certain level or higher. Since then, guidelines have been added and revised, including measures for dealing with high tides, high waves, and strong winds in the event of a typhoon, and measures for dealing with infectious disease outbreaks following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In contrast, collaborative protection planning involves formulating climate change adaptation measures as a preventive measure against storm surges and tsunamis, which occur relatively frequently. It has been proposed as a new approach based on the establishment of methods for quantitatively predicting and assessing the impacts of global warming.

Furthermore, the market is increasingly demanding that private companies also implement such risk assessments and disaster prevention measures. Amid concerns about rising sea levels and increasingly powerful typhoons, investors want to determine how companies with port operations assess their disaster risks and what countermeasures they are taking. If a company's disaster prevention measures are weak and its business activities stagnate for a long period despite significant investments, it could suffer significant losses. In response to these investor demands, the TCFD ^*1 published recommendations in 2017 calling for disclosure of the financial impacts of climate change-related "risks" and "opportunities." The Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market subsequently made disclosures based on the TCFD recommendations mandatory in 2022. Furthermore, in June 2023, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) ^*2 published the International Standard for Sustainability Disclosure (ISSB Standard), which incorporates the TCFD recommendations. This international standard requires more detailed information than the TCFD. As such, investors are increasingly calling for disclosure of risks related to climate change, and are showing a willingness to divest (withdraw investment) if they see any deficiencies in this disclosure.

Current status of climate change adaptation in ports and the role of PACIFIC CONSULTANTS

Following the legal amendments and the publication of guidelines, it is expected that efforts to "adapt to climate change in ports" will progress in the future. However, for example, when creating a collaborative protection plan, it is necessary to reach an agreement among the parties involved on the level and by when measures will be implemented, but various challenges exist before reaching that consensus. In order to actually create the plan and implement the measures, it is necessary to hold repeated discussions to arrive at the optimal solution for the port as a whole, and to find ways to allocate the burden in a way that does not leave any sense of unfairness.

PACIFIC CONSULTANTS Ports and Harbors Dept. has been involved in the surveys, planning, and design of many breakwaters, seawalls, quays, and various port facilities. We have also conducted detailed simulations to assess the risk of flooding, determining what areas would be flooded in the event of a typhoon of a certain magnitude. We have also conducted simulations that take climate change into account to determine how far the flooded area would spread if the current situation remained unchanged, and compared the amount of damage with and without countermeasures. While there are still very few examples of quantitative assessments that take climate change into account, we believe our track record is of great value in organizing and analyzing the basic information needed to develop collaborative protection plans.

Additionally, in port areas, cranes and other large machinery are often used to load and unload cargo. Such electrical equipment is vulnerable to flooding, and if damaged, there is a significant risk that the port's logistics functions will be suspended for an extended period of time. In this regard, PACIFIC CONSULTANTS, which has specialized departments related to civil engineering structures and electrical and mechanical equipment, can conduct comprehensive and realistic risk assessments. Furthermore, because collaborative protection plans involve the participation of various public and private entities, it is important to reach a consensus, and we believe this is another area where our coordination skills as consultants can be put to good use.

To support new initiatives to adapt to climate change at ports, PACIFIC CONSULTANTS will continue to utilize its unique comprehensive capabilities to contribute to the realization of climate change countermeasures through risk assessments associated with climate change and the creation of collaborative protection plans.