EU Commission Answer: Consequences of the EU’s ETS rules for shipping

Brussels, 6 May 2024

E-000824/2024

Answer given by Mr Hoekstra on behalf of the European Commission (6.5.2024)

All sectors, including maritime transport, need to contribute to achieving the EU climate neutrality objective by 2050. The EU Emissions Trading System¹ (ETS) is a cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change and its key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It ensures that emissions are reduced over time in the most economically efficient manner.

This motivated the extension of the EU ETS to emissions from maritime transport, agreed by the European Parliament and the Council in 2023². The co-legislators have also agreed on a phase-in approach in order to ensure a smooth inclusion of the sector within the ETS scope.

Furthermore, pursuant to the reporting and review provisions in the ETS Directive, the Commission will monitor and report on the implementation of the ETS extension to maritime transport, in particular to detect evasive behaviour in order to prevent it at an early stage. The monitoring will also concern, inter alia, possible transport cost increases, market distortions, the overall competitiveness of the maritime sector in the Member States and in particular impacts on those shipping services that constitute essential services of territorial continuity. If appropriate, the Commission will propose measures.

It is also important to recall that the ETS generates revenues, which may further encourage the decarbonisation of the maritime sector and increase its competitiveness. The EU maritime sector can benefit from ETS auctioning revenues to Member States and from the Innovation Fund. The latter should mobilise 20 million EU allowances specifically for the sector until 2030.

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^{1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32003L0087}

^{2 Directive (EU) 2023/959 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 amending Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union and Decision (EU) 2015/1814 concerning the establishment and operation of a market stability reserve for the Union greenhouse gas emission trading system, OJ L 130, 16.5.2023, p. 134–202, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2023/959/oj}

Source: Answer to a written question – Consequences of the EU’s ETS rules for shipping – E-000824/2024(ASW)