European shipowners are calling on the European Union to bring in targets for fuel suppliers to ensure low and zero-carbon fuels become available in shipping markets.
The European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) has asked the European Commission to introduce sub-targets to make low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels available.
The industry group also wants the EU executive body to increase the multiplier for renewable fuels used in the maritime sector under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).
ECSA said that requiring a fuel standard for ships instead of fuel suppliers under the FuelEU Maritime proposal would risk failing to deliver emissions reductions and would be hard to enforce.
The organisation also repeated its call that if a market-based measure (MBM), either taxes or a carbon levy, is introduced revenues should be invested in a fund to support the uptake of cleaner fuels.
“The chicken-and-egg dilemma can only be addressed by the introduction of appropriate requirements for fuel suppliers. A fund under an MBM could support the uptake of these fuels,” said Martin Dorsman, the ECSA's secretary general.
The fund would use revenues to finance research and development projects and to bridge the price gap between new and conventional fuels, the ECSA added.
“We are quite concerned that should the FuelEU Maritime put forward a fuel standard as a requirement for ships, such a measure would seriously disrupt the bunkering market and would be challenging to enforce,” Dorsman added.
“More importantly, it would fail to incentivise energy efficiency improvements.”
Last month, the ECSA set out a framework for working with a European emissions trading scheme (ETS) which it hopes can dovetail with future International Maritime Organization plans.
The European Commission intends to present proposals to extend the ETS to shipping in June, and was taking submissions on how a scheme should work.
In a webinar debate with European representatives, the ECSA said its proposals reflect the association’s willingness to work constructively with the EU towards an eventual goal of a harmonised global system.
Beatriz Yordi Aguirre, the commission's director of European and international carbon markets in the Directorate General for Climate Action, said ship operators should not be scared of an ETS.
“Access to finance for the shipping industry to decarbonise is key,” she said. “Precise ways of doing it is a more open question.”
