The European Council today adopted into law the FuelEU maritime initiative, which seeks to increase demand for renewable and low-carbon fuels.
The initiative aims to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of fuels by 2pc in 2025 and up to 80pc by 2050, as part of the EU's ‘Fit for 55' package. It will provide an incentive for the uptake of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) with high decarbonisation potential, to compensate for their considerably higher prices and production costs compared with conventional marine fuels.
The initiative will exclude fossil fuels from the certification process.
Ships will have to use onshore power supply for all electricity needs while moored at major EU ports as of 2030, but can pool their compliance balances between one or more other ships to average out their GHG intensity limits. To mitigate the effect on small islands, remote areas and regions that are highly dependent on their connectivity, there will be limited exceptions for these areas. Revenue generated from FuelEU penalties will be used to support decarbonisation and the fuel transition.
FuelEU will calculate emissions on a well-to-wake basis to fully capture all emissions in the lifecycle of marine fuels.
The regulation will be published in the EU's official journal after the summer, and enter into force 20 days after publication. The new rules will apply from 1 January 2025 — except for articles 8 and 9 concerning the submission of monitoring plan for all a company's ships, which will come into effect from 31 August 2024.
