The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) supports the objectives of the European Green Deal, EU Climate Law and the Paris Agreement. As an important part of the European economy, shipping has a key role to play to achieve the EU’s climate objectives. The FuelEU Maritime Regulation is crucial for promoting the uptake of sustainable and scalable fuels in shipping, according to ECSA's release.
As trilogue negotiations on the FuelEU Maritime enter in their final phase, it is key to ensure the final text contributes to a successful energy transition of shipping. To that end, we need all hands on deck to make sufficient quantities of low- and zero-carbon fuels available in the market at an affordable price.
Therefore, ECSA calls on the European Parliament and the Council to support the mandatory inclusion of fuel suppliers under the scope of FuelEU Maritime as proposed by the European Parliament in Amendment 129 (Article 20 – paragraph 3 c (new)). It is key to ensure that shipowners are not unduly penalised if the sustainable fuels necessary for compliance are not delivered. This provision, together with a binding target for maritime fuel suppliers as proposed by the Parliament in RED III, is essential for the energy transition of shipping.
Conditional to the mandatory inclusion of fuel suppliers under the scope of FuelEU Maritime and the availability of fuels, in principle ECSA supports the proposal of the Parliament in Amendment 82 on a sub-quota for renewable fuels of non-biological origin.
In addition, ECSA supports the introduction of a high multiplier for the use of sustainable and scalable fuels for shipping under the FuelEU Maritime Regulation.