Open Letter to European Parliament and Council of the EU on AFIR and FuelEU Maritime Proposals

Broad industry-NGO coalition calls for EU hydrogen quota for shipping

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

Last year the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, 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.

Magnolia Tovar, Zero-Carbon Fuels Global Director at Clean Air Task Force said, “The maritime sector has long been a laggard on emissions reductions – but there is substantial appetite within the industry to make rapid action. If the EU is serious about economy-wide decarbonisation this decade, it must up the ambition on this hard-to-abate sector. The industry wants a clear roadmap so it can make the necessary investments, and that means having clear targets. Moving away from fossil fuels and instead adopting hydrogen-based fuels will never be the easy choice when it comes to pure economics, but we believe there is the potential for a scalable global market for zero-carbon fuels, as long as we have the right incentives in place to get the ball rolling.”

A list of all the coalition’s demands can be found here.