Advanced BioFuels USA

by Ciarán Cuffe and Jutta Paulus (Greens/EFA/EurActiv) Low targets, few incentives, and a myriad of exemptions have hollowed out the potential of FuelEU Maritime to kickstart the decarbonisation journey of a historically underregulated sector, argue Jutta Paulus and Ciarán Cuffe.

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However, the International Maritime Organisation has failed to take appropriate measures to decarbonise the sector. Transitioning shipping towards alternative energy sources is essential to reduce its climate impact. FuelEU Maritime is an opportunity to set the global standard for the sector.

FuelEU Maritime is part of the “Fit for 55” package presented by the European Commission in July 2021. Its aim? Driving shipping to transition towards low-carbon energy sources by introducing strong climate rules for marine fuels.

Measures included in the proposal are higher GHG intensity reduction targets, increasing targets for renewable e-fuel use, and rewards for early adopters of these fuels.

This sounds very positive, but the Commission’s proposal already fails at hurdle one: ensuring a pathway to climate neutrality by 2050.

In a joint statement released this year by Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden, the countries emphasised that FuelEU Maritime needs more ambition and a “proactive legislative framework” to reduce GHG emissions from the sector.

Despite support from the Council and the Parliament’s environment and energy committees (ENVI and ITRE), the leading transport committee (TRAN) watered down the draft law by narrowing the scope and introducing a myriad of exemptions, effectively cancelling out any gains made by the introduction of some slightly higher targets.

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We need higher GHG intensity reduction targets for 2030 and 2050, so Parliament must approve a 100% target by 2050 and a 10% target by 2030.

At Council, these targets have the explicit support of member states like Germany and Denmark. A higher 2030 target is essential to keep 1.5 alive this decade.

The lower 2030 target proposed by the Commission and unchanged by TRAN would also incentivise a switch to fossil LNG, increasing our dependence on potentially unreliable imports into the next decade.

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Higher sub-targets for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) are also important. This category includes electrofuels like hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, and e-diesel.

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We are proposing to increase the RFNBO sub-target introduced by TRAN from 2% by 2035 to 6%, in line with the ITRE target, although from a climate policy point of view, the much higher ENVI sub-targets of 6% and 12%, respectively, should be applied.

Nonsensically, the TRAN deal only applies to ships above 5000 GT. This is significantly out-of-step with Parliament’s Emissions Trading System position approved this year, which covers ships above 400 GT from 2027.

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Finally, another issue of scope arises with TRAN’s decision to restrict obligations to cut emissions of GHG and pollutants in harbours to TEN-T ports only. This significantly reduces the law’s potential provisions that aim to reduce ship emissions to zero at berth.  READ MORE

FuelEU Maritime: MEPs warn against watering down the legislation. (Transport Energy Strategies)

Excerpt from Transport Energy Strategies: It remains to be seen what is going to happen on FuelEU Maritime, but I (Tammy Klein) suspect these MEPs will not win the day. The original proposed regulation from the Commission introduces increasingly stringent limits on carbon intensity of the energy used by vessels from 2025, which should oblige them to use alternative fuels. It applies to commercial vessels of 5,000 gross tons and above, regardless of their flag (fishing ships are exempted). It covers all energy used on board when the ship is at an EU port and on voyages between EU ports, and 50% of the energy used on voyages departing from or arriving to an EU port. The annual average carbon intensity has to decrease by 2% in 2025 and by 6 % in 2030 and then further by 5-year periods till 2050, when carbon intensity should be 75% compared to the 2020 base year. READ MORE