With this joint statement, the European Community of Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the European green transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) would like to express their support for the achievement of the objectives of the European Green Deal, EU Climate Law and the Paris Agreement. As an important part of the European economy, shipping has a role to play in ambitious climate action in Europe. The Commission’s proposed regulation for FuelEU Maritime is crucial for promoting the uptake of sustainable and scalable fuels in shipping. However, as it stands now, the Commission proposal falls short of ambition and fails to address the responsibilities of other stakeholders such as the fuel suppliers. If adopted in its current form, the proposal might do more harm than good to shipping’s climate ambition. 

 

With this in mind, ECSA and T&E call on the EU member states and the Μembers of the European Parliament to implement the following revisions to the EU’s proposed FuelEU Maritime regulation:

 

1. Support more ambitious targets under Article 4.2 in order to align them with the decarbonisation pathway compatible with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement and the EU Climate Law. 

 

2. The responsibilities of the fuels suppliers are essential to achieve the ambitious regulatory targets as called for above. Thus, we call to introduce robust requirements on Member States under the FuelEU Maritime to ensure that fuel suppliers in European ports deliver compliant fuels to ships in sufficient quantities in order to meet the regulatory objectives (shared responsibility). In addition, fuel suppliers should  have more concrete responsibilities under the Renewable Energy Directive.

 

3. Earmark the revenues generated under the EU ETS and the FuelEU Maritime to facilitate the energy transition of the sector and contribute to bridging the price differential between conventional fuels and sustainable, and scalable alternatives, inter alia, through the carbon contracts for difference. In this regard, the establishment of a dedicated fund under the EU ETS to leverage the revenues so that sustainable fuels become commercially available is strongly supported. 

 

4. Introduce a high multiplier for the use of sustainable and scalable marine fuels under the FuelEU Maritime Regulation in order to render them cost-competitive vis-a-vis other alternatives.

 

European shipowners and civil society are ready to work with EU policy-makers to ensure speedy and fair transition of the shipping sector.

 

ECSA represents 19 national shipowners’ associations based in the EU and Norway. European shipowners control 39.5% of the global commercial fleet, contribute 149 billion euros per year to the EU GDP and provide 2 million Europeans with careers both on board and ashore. ECSA strives for a regulatory environment that fosters the international competitiveness of European shipping, to the benefit of the EU.

 

Transport & Environment (T&E) is Europe’s leading clean transport campaign group. Its vision is a zero-emission mobility system that is affordable and has minimal impacts on our health, climate and environment.