The main environmental clauses that can be part of a terminal concession include:
- The compulsory use of some sort of environmental management reporting system.
- Stipulations on emission levels.
- Specific technical equipment to be used to limit emissions.
- Causes of existing or future contamination of the terminal site.
- Modal split targets.
A small number of recent terminal contracts include modal split specifications, particularly for container terminals. This mostly takes the form of some technical specifications and compulsory investments to be done by the terminal operator in hinterland transport infrastructures on the terminal site. In only a few cases, the modal split clauses explicitly impose a specific modal split on the terminal operator to be reached by a certain year (for example, 40% road, 40% barge and shortsea, and 20% rail by a specific date). The modal split target is often formulated as a soft objective (an intention). However, soft targets are best kept outside the contractual setting as they cannot be legally imposed on the terminal operator. The port authority can encourage terminal operators to reach soft targets through favorable pricing or awarding systems (the ‘carrot’ approach).
The setting of hard targets in the concession agreement implies binding clauses and enforcement (penalties for non-compliance). In following such a stick approach, port authorities often face the problem of posing credible threats. For example, terminal operators confronted with hard modal split clauses will argue that the distribution of cargo over the various inland transport modes is largely affected by exogenous factors such as the supply chain practices of their customers, the pricing and quality of rail and barge services and infrastructure policy (of the government) outside the port area. However, terminal operators can positively influence the modal split on their terminal through pricing (for instance, a dwell time fee system or pricing of moves to inland transport modes), actions to increase the transparency of information flows (which makes cargo bundling towards rail and barge easier) and extended gate solutions in the hinterland (for instance by setting up satellite terminals in the hinterland).