Transport & Environment (T&E), announced that on 22th March, EU agreed to the world’s first green shipping fuels law in favour of at least 2% mandate for green shipping fuels by 2025, compared to the latest agreement of a mandate by 2030.
According to T&E, ships will be required to increasingly switch to sustainable fuels and at least 2% of the bloc’s shipping fuels will need to come from e-fuels derived from renewable electricity by 2034 at the latest.
Negotiators agreed new targets for shipowners to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the energy they use onboard by 2 percent from 2025 and 6 percent as of 2030. The figure will rise to 14.5 percent from 2035, 31 percent from 2040, 62 percent from 2045 and 80 percent from 2050.
With negotiations ongoing at the International Maritime Organization, the global shipping regulator, Transport & Environment (T&E) says this marks the beginning of the end for dirty shipping fuels and should provide inspiration for other countries around the world.
Today’s decision marks the beginning of the end of dirty fuels in shipping. The EU is charting the way with the most ambitious package of green shipping laws ever adopted. This success should inspire other countries to do the same.
..said Delphine Gozillon, sustainable shipping officer at T&E.
The EU’s FuelEU Maritime law, which, according to ECSA, is crucial for promoting the uptake of sustainable and scalable fuels in shipping, agreed by all the EU bodies and member states, sends a strong signal to potential investors and fuel suppliers to start producing these green fuels for shipping.
T&E higjlights that E-fuels are one of the only options shipping has to decarbonise, where direct electrification for many vessels is not possible. However, the group warns that loopholes risk letting biofuels and low-carbon fuels in the backdoor. T&E has called on the EU to fix these when it revises the law by 2028.
