Europe’s lawmakers have voted in favour of a 2% mandate for green shipping fuels by 2030. Transport & Environment (T&E) welcomes the world’s first measure to decarbonize shipping fuels but says much more will be needed to get shipping to zero-emission. Viewed as a kickstart to the production of hydrogen-based fuels by providing investment certainty to fuel producers, T&E is hoping to raise this mandate to 6% in 2035. The Parliament did not announce a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target of 100% in 2050, but did introduce stricter GHG targets that will shorten the lifetime of LNG as a compliance option for ships. A recent T&E study shows that in 2030 Europe’s shipping industry will need over 6.3 million metric tonnes of LNG to power its growing fleet of gas-powered ships which is the equivalent to powering 7 million homes. This will only increase Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels, says T&E, which has labelled the switch to LNG as irresponsible in times of energy crisis. Preventing the uptake of gas in shipping must happen now, says T&E, before all segments of the maritime industry fall into the gas trap.
