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On 23 March, the Council and the European Parliament’s negotiators struck a provisional agreement on the FuelEU Maritime Regulation. The agreement provides the shipping sector with a framework to accelerate their green transition through reduced emissions during navigation and at berth. The ambitious requirements for ships to reduce emissions starting in 2025 will help drive the uptake of alternative fuels in shipping.

CLECAT welcomes the agreement as an important step towards the decarbonisation of shipping via the increased uptake of renewable and low-carbon fuels. It will ensure that the shipping sector will deliver on climate targets and progressively ceases to be dependent on highly polluting heavy fuel oil. The agreement now gives some clear guidance to the maritime sector and to suppliers on the fuels that may be used.   CLECAT also welcomes the fact that the Parliament ensured that the Commission would review the scope of the Regulation by 2028 to decide whether to extend the requirements to smaller ships, in order to avoid further market distortion and to create decarbonisation incentives for all kind of ships.

The agreement retains the core aspects of the Commission proposal, including the scope of application (ships over 5000 GT, 100% of intra-EU journeys and 50 % of extra-EU journeys) and the GHG intensity limits for ships. Both institutions agreed to strengthen the targets proposed by the Commission as of 2035, reaching 80% GHG intensity reduction in 2050, compared to 2020. A new provision also sets a 2% RNFBO (Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin) target of 2034 if the Commission reports that in 2031 RFNBO amount to less than 1% in the fuel mix.

The negotiators also agreed on mandating ships to use onshore power supply (OPS) for all electricity needs while moored at the quayside in major EU ports as of 2030. Some flexibilities have been introduced for outermost regions, small islands, and areas economically highly dependent on their connectivity. The obligation will also apply to the rest of EU ports as of 2035, if these ports have an OPS installation.

The informal deal still needs to be approved by the Council’s COREPER and Parliament’s TRAN Committee, and then the Parliament and Council as a whole, before its publication in the Official Journal.

Source: European Parliament, Council of the EU