With about 90% of world trade transported by sea, global shipping accounted for nearly 3% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions, according to the 4th IMO GHG study.
Shipping is seen as one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise, and indeed according to the same report, shipping emissions rose by 10% between 2012 and 2018.
Hence, FuelsEurope welcomed the Commission’s Fit for 55 Package as it contains constructive proposals for the decarbonisation of transport, including Maritime, and developing the policy framework necessary for the transition of the fuels industry.
As part of this package, the ReFuelEU Maritime regulation is intended to boost the supply and demand for sustainable marine fuel in the EU, reduce maritime’s environmental footprint and guide this sector’s contribution towards the EU’s climate targets.
As such, we support the following principles: shipping is an international business; therefore, EU regulation should preserve the international competitiveness of the sector, and remain coherent with those in place or under development at the IMO level to avoid climate ambition gaps and regulatory overlap between the EU and the rest of the world in this sector.
We welcome the well-to-wake (WTW) emissions standard as a suitable measure to drive the development and deployment of sustainable alternative marine fuels.
As FuelsEurope, we are supportive of a technology-neutral regulation with default Green House Gas (GHG) values for all energies, periodically updated to take technology improvements into account.
The variety of feedstocks in scope of the FuelEU Maritime consensus developed after EU trilogue discussions provides increased flexibility to achieve the GHG emission reduction targets enshrined in the regulation. This should enable increased manufacturing and uptake of low-carbon fuels in the maritime sector vs. earlier proposals of the regulation. Nonetheless, as the policy landscape develops at the global level, the implementation of FuelsEU Maritime deserves continued scrutiny and appraisal of its efficiency. This will be essential to ensure the competitiveness of the broader EU economy and prevent carbon leakages hinder the Union’s climate ambition.
Read our Fit for 55 recommendations here.
08/11/2021
23/10/2020