# Reduction Potential of Gaseous Emissions in European Ports Using Cold Ironing
## 11 Potential Solutions to Overcome Barriers: Next Research Developments  
Overcoming the identified barriers is firstly a matter of port-ship cooperation and collaboration with industry organizations, governments, and other stakeholders to develop and implement guidelines and best practices for cold ironing. These multidisciplinary aspects merit further development in future research streams combining technical solutions with normative and economic aspects capable of amplifying the achievements, which include the following:  
1. Technical and logistics: establishing standardized guidelines and protocols for the installation and operation of cold ironing systems can help to ensure safety and efficiency and reduce costs and complexity of the implementation,
2. Funding and financing: establishing funding mechanisms, such as grants and low-interest loans, to support the implementation of cold ironing. Additionally, ports and ship owners can collaborate with local governments, financial institutions, and other stakeholders to secure the needed funding [16],
3. Standards and regulations: accelerating the multilateral standardization in equipment and the international agreements about concerned rules and regulations will pave the way to faster and more efficient implementations; the high-level framework recently consolidated by [5; 6] should be enriched by the concerned harmonized technical standards,
4. Limited availability of shore power: increasing the availability of shore power in ports by encouraging investment in the necessary infrastructure and equipment and by working with governments and other stakeholders to support the implementation,
5. Interoperability: establishing a harmonized approach in the European Union and beyond by adopting a common set of standardized infrastructures can help to ensure that ships can use the technology while traveling across ports,
6. Lack of awareness: increasing evidence of the achievable benefits among ship owners and other operators by providing information and training on the technology, as well as by promoting the benefits of cold ironing to the public,
7. Grid infrastructure: upgrading the power grid infrastructure to support the large power needs by working with power companies and governments to invest in new infrastructure and equipment,
8. Environmental regulations: using clean energy sources, such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, to generate the energy needed to make cold ironing compliant with environmental regulations and targets,
9. Safety: establishing guidelines by working with industry experts and regulatory bodies to develop protocols for the safe operation of systems and components,
10. Technological progress: staying updated with the latest technological advancements so that ports and ships can adopt them, which can provide better results than the traditional cold ironing; additionally, ports and ships can invest in research and development to further improve the technologies and make them more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective.  
Based on the remarks above, the implementation of cold ironing in European ports is encountering several challenging barriers, but with systematic and harmonized cooperative approaches and solutions, these can be overcome.