ECSA welcomes the European Commission’s newly published communication on a European Strategy for low-emission mobility which rightly points out that all transport sectors need to contribute towards reducing the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants.
“We believe that shipping obviously must be part of the global solutions to limit the increase in the global temperature as we clearly are also a global contributor to the carbon emissions”, commented ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven.
The foresaid European Commission’s low-emission mobility strategy sets clear and fair guiding principles to Member States to prepare for the future. The Energy Union strategy contributes to this goal. The strategy also reiterates Europe’s commitment in pursuing global efforts to control emissions from international aviation and maritime transport. Some of the main elements of the Strategy are:
- Increasing the efficiency of the transport system by making the most of digital technologies, smart pricing and further encouraging the shift to lower emission transport modes.
- Speeding up the deployment of low-emission alternative energy for transport, such as advanced biofuels, renewable electricity and renewable synthetic fuels and removing obstacles to the electrification of transport.
- Cities and local authorities are crucial for the delivery of this strategy. They are already implementing incentives for low-emission alternative energies in order to reduce pollution.
“We fully agree with the aim of the EU to secure a robust and mandatory global agreement for the collection and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping in the International Maritime Organisation as mentioned in the Commission’s communication. We also look forward to seeing a proposal to align the EU MRV Regulation with the global system. Finally, we support the Commission in ensuring that IMO timely delivers on the next steps. We believe that a global agreement is both needed and possible”, Mr. Verhoeven added.
Shipping is today one of the most energy-efficient modes of transport. The sector transports approximately 90% of world trade and is only responsible for 2,2% of the global CO2 emissions. However, a recent IMO study predicts that shipping’s CO2 emissions may increase between 50 and 250% in the worst case scenario by 2050 as the traffic increases, unless preventive measures are taken.
The international shipping industry is committed to developing CO2 reductions across the world merchant fleet that are both ambitious and realistic.
“Overall, we welcome the comprehensive approach of the EU strategy, which focuses also on supporting multi-modality, alternative fuels, digitalisation and innovation”, Patrick Verhoeven concluded.
Through the Strategy, the Commission is looking into how to accelerate the use of low-emission alternative energy, such as advanced biofuels, electricity, hydrogen and renewable synthetic fuels by providing strong incentives to innovate. With such policy measures the share of low-emission energy could increase, providing about 15-17% of transport energy demand in 2030 and replacing oil products.
The Commission is also looking into better synergies between the energy and transport systems, for example addressing distribution challenges of electricity at peak times. This would make charging of electric vehicles easier.
In accordance with Directive on alternative fuel infrastructure, Member States are required to implement common standards, including a common plug for electric vehicles, and roll out infrastructure for alternative fuels. In co-operation with Member States and the European Standardisation Organisations, the work on better interoperability and standardisation in particular for electro-mobility continues. In addition, the Commission will develop a methodology for easy price comparison of electricity and other conventional and alternative fuels.
The Commission has proposed and already implemented some important improvements on how vehicle emissions are measured and verified. This is a necessary precondition to ensure that standards have an impact and that consumers can trust them. The Commission is working on post-2020 standards for cars and vans. Emissions from conventional combustion engines will need to be further reduced after 2020. Zero- and low-emission vehicles will need to be deployed and gain significant market share. Their deployment will significantly improve air quality in particular in cities. Together with this Strategy, the Commission is launching a public consultation to revise the current legislative framework for post-2020 standards for cars and vans.
To support demand by users, the Commission is working on improving customer information, for example by reviewing the Car Labelling Directive, and on incentives in public procurement rules, in the context of a revision of the Clean Vehicles Directive. This can be very powerful tool to support deployment for example of zero-emission city buses.
Further information may be found by reading the communication below
