FuelEU Maritime Initiative - for more sustainable fuels in the maritime sector

The European Commission had started a process to draft a directive to increase the use of sustainable alternative fuels in European shipping and ports in the so-called FuelEU Maritime Initiative. The background for this action is  that ship traffic to or from ports in the European Economic Area accounts for some 11% of all EU CO2 emissions from transport.

The commission drafted an inception impact assessment and invited stakeholders to provide feedback on this document. More than eighty responses have been submitted. Based on this , the Commission will now start preparing a public consultation. The commission expects a first draft of a directive to be ready in Q4 of 2020. more than eighty replies

The Netherlands Platform Sustainable Biofuels als submitted a position. Key messages:

• Within Europe, the Netherlands represent with nearly 28% the largest volume of fuels bunkering for maritime shipping.
• The Dutch maritime sector has therefore a considerable interest in the development of an EU intervention for deploying renewable fuels in shipping.
• Netherlands stakeholders consider EU-regulation to reduce GHG-emissions in shipping a very supportive option for accelerating deployment of renewable fuels in shipping.
• The Dutch Platform Sustainable Biofuels sees biofuels as an option that can be deployed now, delivering a cost-competitive low carbon fuel option for shipping containing no (or only limited) sulphur. However, a ‘dedicated’ marine low carbon fuel has still to be developed developed.

Information about other submissions and about the further process about the FuelEU Maritime Initiative .

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