Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service Podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about the European Commission's proposal to steer the EU maritime sector towards decarbonisation.

Want to know more? Get on board.

Maritime transport is a key economic sector in Europe.

It makes up three quarters of external trade and almost one third of internal trade volumes.

And every year, around 400 million passengers embark or disembark in EU ports.

But ships pollute.

In 2018, they generated over 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions from transport.

And while this is substantially less than the 71% generated by road transport,

the problem is that at present, the maritime sector relies

almost entirely on fossil fuels, mainly heavy fuel oil.

In 2018, the International Maritime Organization, the UN's body-regulating international shipping,

set itself the goal to reduce average carbon intensity, which is the CO2 per ton

mile by at least 40% by 2030 and by 70% in 2050. As well as to cut total emissions by at least

50% by 2050 compared to 2008 and phase them out as soon as possible.

That's right.

Now, meeting the 2030 reduction target can still be done with the current technology,

combining measures such as lower speeds, improvements in operational efficiency through

data analytics, limited use of low carbon fuels fuels and energy-efficient designs.

But meeting the 2050 goals is a different game and will require a global transition

to alternative fuels and energy sources. So how are we going to do this in Europe?

As part of the Fit 455 package in July 2021, the European Commission presented the Fuel EU Maritime Proposal,

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