The European Commission published the second European Maritime Transport Environmental Report on 4 February 2025, concluding that the sector has made measurable progress on reducing some environmental pressures but still falls short of what is required to meet the EU’s 2030 climate and environmental targets.
The assessment, which examines maritime transport’s environmental footprint across the European Union and evaluates measures designed to improve sustainability, notes that shipping accounts for roughly 3 to 4 per cent of the bloc’s carbon dioxide emissions and remains a significant source of greenhouse gases.
The report highlights a range of environmental pressures from maritime activity. Oil spills, wastewater discharge and underwater noise are singled out for their continuing impacts on marine ecosystems, with the document stressing that these pressures demand sustained regulatory and operational attention.
Marine litter and plastics
Marine litter associated with fisheries and shipping is estimated to have fallen by around half over the past decade, a reduction the report records as one of the sector’s more positive trends, but it also emphasises that losses of plastic pellets into the sea remain a serious and unresolved problem.
Policy tools under way
To tackle emissions directly, the report outlines how FuelEU Maritime is intended to encourage uptake of lower‑carbon fuels, while extension of the EU Emissions Trading System would place a carbon price on ships’ greenhouse‑gas emissions; the document treats the two instruments as complementary elements of the policy mix.
The authors say these policy measures are beginning to influence fuel choices and operational practices but caution that they will need to be implemented alongside further technical and behavioural change if the sector is to align with the EU’s 2030 ambitions.
The report was prepared jointly by the European Maritime Safety Agency and the European Environment Agency with support from the European Commission, and it combines monitored data with assessments of the likely environmental outcomes of current and planned measures.
Taken together, the findings present a picture of cautious progress: some pressures have eased, others persist, and policy interventions are starting to have an effect, but the report underlines that considerably more effort is required from industry, authorities and member states to deliver the reductions in pollution and emissions envisaged under the EU framework.
Policymakers and operators are therefore urged to accelerate implementation of the measures described, to close remaining gaps on pollution prevention and to step up monitoring for problem areas such as pellet loss, wastewater discharge and underwater noise if the EU is to reach its stated 2030 environmental and climate objectives.