Industry-NGO coalition calls for EU hydrogen quota for shipping

A broad coalition of energy providers, shipping companies and NGOs has called on the EU to introduce a minimum quota of at least 6% sustainable and scalable hydrogen fuels by 2030.

Last year, the European Commission proposed a shipping fuel law (FuelEU Maritime Regulation) aimed at increasing the uptake of alternative marine fuels.

Unfortunately, the law fails to guarantee the competitiveness of sustainable and scalable e-fuels, and risks promoting cheaper, unsustainable fuels. The coalition therefore calls on the European Parliament and EU Council to improve the proposal by including a dedicated e-fuels sub quota in the proposed regulation.

The European Parliament Transport committee will vote on the FuelEU Maritime on 11 July and the Parliament in September.

“An ambitious shipping fuels law will be key to set the shipping sector on course for full decarbonisation. Sustainable e-fuels are currently too expensive compared to other alternatives such as fossil LNG and biofuels, holding back investments in production facilities, refuelling infrastructure in ports and zero-emission ships,” Delphine Gozillon, sustainable shipping officer at T&E, said.

“However, with a bit of a push e-fuels produced from renewable hydrogen can be scalable. That’s why we need a quota to get the ball rolling and encourage companies to start investing in clean shipping fuels. Shipping does not need to be a dirty industry forever.”

Specifically, the signatories call on the EU Council and the European Parliament to:

• Add a subtarget for use of a minimum percentage of e-fuels by 2030 as part of the FuelEU Maritime. They recommend a subtarget of 6% of the energy demand used by ships be fulfilled by e-fuels by 2030.
• Establish a multiplier for use of e-fuels above the sub-target, allowing every tonne of such fuel to count 5 times to drive e-fuel investments.
• Introduce targets for the deployment of sustainable hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels refuelling points in European ports, to enable supply of all e-fuels to the shipping sector;

A sub-quota and a multiplier for green hydrogen fuels (RFNBOs) are essential to kick-start the uptake of renewable maritime fuels in this decade and reach zero emissions by 2050, according to the signatories.

The coalition includes Yara, Teco 2030, Siemens Energy, Viking Cruises, Green Power Denmark and Brussels-based organisations Hydrogen Europe and Transport & Environment (T&E), and others.