Maritime industry ready and Fit for 55

To achieve EU’s Paris climate goals, the EU Commission presented in December 2019 the European Green Deal, including a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) and become carbon neutral by 2050. The EU Commission now intensifies the work and has on 14 July 2021 presented an ambitious package of legislative proposals called «Fit for 55 Package» which involves a range of sectors, also including the maritime sector.

With the Fit for 55 package, the Commission has introduced a set of proposals to revise and update EU legislation and to put in place new initiatives with the aim of ensuring that EU policies are in line with the climate goals. The form and content of the final reforms will depend on agreement between the member state’s governments, the European Parliament and the EU executive branch. One thing is however certain; along with several other sectors the maritime sector is designated to take greater responsibility for contributing to the climate goals.

In this series of articles we will first focus on the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), and what it entails to the maritime sector to be included in this system. Then we will discuss the FuelEU Maritime initiative, and in the third and last article, we will have a look at the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD).