Fit for 55 summary, its implications and why it’s not your only concern
On 14th July the EU confirmed the package of measures that are being introduced to address GHG emissions – the measures aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 55% of 1990 levels by 2030. The package mainly achieves this by extending the EU ETS to include shipping and introducing the FuelEU Maritime initiative.
In a nutshell:
EU ETS
Shipowners, or those who have taken responsibility of the ship from the owner (e.g. bareboat charter) will be responsible for EU ETS compliance. Compliance cost can then be contractually passed down to the entity responsible for choice of fuel, route and speed of the ship.
This will be introduced in a phased manner, with 20% of verified emissions[1] to be compliant under EU ETS from January 2023. This then increases to 45% in 2024; 70% in 2025; and 100% by 2026 and each year thereafter.
FuelEU Maritime initiative
This is a new initiative, due to be implemented in January 2025, designed to reduce GHG intensity and increase the uptake of alternative fuels . The GHG intensity of ships will need to be reduced by -2% from January 2025, increasing to -75% by 2050.
The key Fit for 55 takeaways?
- A FuelEU Maritime certificate will be issued when verification companies have confirmed compliance.
- There will be penalties for non-compliance.
- There will rewards for using substitute energy i.e. wind.
With this in mind, unless cleaner shipping decisions are being made, the cost of your voyages will increase.
But the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime initiative isn’t your only concern. Whilst the regulations may not start to come into effect until 2023, increasing social pressure, boardroom pressure and investor pressure will likely see organisations take significant leaps towards much cleaner shipping much sooner than regulation dictates.
Sea/calc’s carbon calculator has been created to give you the data you need to be able to quickly and accurately understand the implications of your fixture decisions on your GHG emissions. You can then conduct comparisons of alternative approaches. A tool such as this will be a really useful piece of kit to help you get to grips with carbon output and the implications of these initiatives. Sea/calc has the added value of combining distance calculations, voyage estimations and carbon predictions all in one place. The benefit? Less flicking between windows and copying and pasting data, allowing you to arrive at a cleaner smarter decision more efficiently than ever before.
With a tool like Sea/calc at your fingertips, as well as being well prepared to meet regulations, it also provides you with the positive progressive stories that you can share with your customers to demonstrate your commitment to the decarbonization agenda.
To find out more about the Sea/calc carbon calculator or to request a demo get in touch using the form below.
[1] Verified emissions to include:
50% of emissions from voyages arriving at an EU port from a non-EU port
50% of emissions from voyages arriving at a non-EU port from an EU port
100% of emissions from intra-EU voyages
100% of emissions from EU berths