Parliament backs EU maritime fuel law to curtail shipping emissions, obliging large ship owners to use a percentage of green hydrogen derived fuels by 2030.
The European Parliament voted to rein in maritime emissions by strengthening greenhouse gas intensity limits for maritime fuels and obliging large ship owners to use a percentage of green-hydrogen derived fuels by 2030.
The Parliament’s position on the so-called FuelEU Maritime law was adopted at a plenary session in Strasbourg with 451 votes in favour, 137 against, and 54 abstentions.
The legislation aims to wean the maritime sector off highly polluting heavy oil by stimulating the use of low-carbon fuels.
Unlike its sister regulation in the aviation sector, the EU’s maritime fuels law does not dictate the type of fuels that must be used; rather it sets the level of acceptable emissions and curtails them over time.
Rapporteur Jörgen Warborn, a Swedish lawmaker with the centre-right EPP Group, called the file “by far the world’s most ambitious pathway to maritime decarbonisation”.
Rapporteur Jörgen Warborn, a Swedish lawmaker with the centre-right EPP Group, said:
“Parliament’s position ensures that our climate targets will be met rapidly and effectively, safeguarding the maritime sector’s competitiveness and ensuring there won’t be carbon leakage or jobs leaving Europe,” he said.
He praised the “technology neutral” approach backed by the Parliament, which he said will prevent regulators from “micromanaging” how emissions are achieved.
“We leave to [ship owners] whether to choose e-methanol, hydrogen, advanced biofuels, or large scale wind propulsion,” he said.
The EU maritime sector is responsible for some 3 to 4% of the bloc’s emissions annually.
Updated measures
MEPs sought to boost the Commission’s proposed reductions in the greenhouse gas intensity of shipping fuel (a 13% cut by 2035 and 75% by 2050 compared to 2020 levels), opting for 2% as of 2025, 20% as of 2035, and 80% as of 2050.
While ships travelling within the EU are subject to these targets in their entirety, only half of the energy used on vessels coming from or travelling to ports outside of the bloc is covered.
This 50% reduction also applies to ships travelling to or from the EU’s outermost regions.
Ships below the threshold of 5,000 gross tonnes are also exempt, a decision that MEP Warborn said was needed to protect smaller shipowners “from massive economic and bureaucratic burdens”.
“Going to 4,000 gross tonnage will mean that of course a lot more ships are covered by [the regulation], but we will only get an additional 6% reduction in CO2,” he explained.
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Parliament backs EU’s maritime fuel law to curtail shipping emissions, October 20, 2022
