Rhine-Alpine News
02.05.2024
Genoa Blue Agreement renewed

The Genoa Blue Agreement, a voluntary agreement to reduce air emissions from passenger ships, cruises, ferries, and cargo ships calling at Genoa, has been renewed. One of the first Mediterranean ports to voluntarily sign an agreement to promote the ecological transition, the Genoa Blue Agreement is shared by public institutions and private operators since 2019. This year, it is being expanded to include the Municipality of Genoa, the ferry sector, and cargo ships with non-regular services.
This important awareness-raising activity will be reported every six months to the Port Authority, which will continue to monitor and promote the Blue Agreement and carry out the checks required by law to verify compliance with the limits of marine fuel sulphur (through analysis of on-board documents and product sampling), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The agreement will remain in effect until 1 May 2025, when the Mediterranean Sea will be designated a sulphur oxide emission control area by a special resolution of the World Maritime Organisation, implemented by the European Union, requiring ships sailing in the Mediterranean Sea to use fuels with a sulphur content of 0.1 % by mass, a limit currently only for port-moored vessels.
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Deutschland-Ticket: Regional Governments seek continuation

Symbolic picture by Didgeman on Pixabay
In a debate on April 18 in Münster about the future of the ticket, which is currently priced at €49 for one month’s travel on local and regional rail services, as well as buses, the ministers supported a proposal to keep the arrangement in place, in which the federal and regional governments each pay half of the scheme’s €3 billion annual cost.
The Nordrhein-Westfalen transport minister Oliver Krischer called it the ‘the most successful ticket in the history of public transport’ with 130 million tickets sold in the first year.
Nordrhein-Westfalen chairs the Land Conference of Transport Ministers, which suggested continuing the Deutschland-Ticket state subsidy ‘initially for a period of 10 years from 2026’. To cover 2024 pass costs, they urge the federal government to spend €700m in unspent funds from 2023.
Increasing costs may lead to higher pass prices in the medium term. The 2025 pricing is expected to be agreed upon in the second part of this year.
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