FuelEU Maritime begins first full year of shipping compliance

FuelEU Maritime has entered its first full year of application, placing a new energy-intensity test on ships above 5,000 gross tonnage that call at European Union ports. The rule applies regardless of a vessel’s flag, making the port call, rather than the nationality of the ship, the practical point at which the regime becomes relevant.

This article is independently written from the factual information published by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, in its report dated 10 January 2025. The Commission’s announcement is the cited source for the details set out here.

A staged reduction

The regulation entered into force in full on 1 January 2025. Its opening requirement is an average reduction of 2 per cent in the greenhouse-gas intensity of energy used by covered ships, measured against a 2020 baseline. That is the first step in a schedule that is intended to reach an 80 per cent reduction by 2050.

The approach is based on the energy used by a vessel, rather than on a single fuel being prescribed for every ship. That leaves the industry facing a performance obligation while retaining scope for different technical and operational responses. The regulation therefore places attention on how energy is produced and consumed across a ship’s activity, not simply on the name of the fuel in its tanks.

A further feature is the pooling mechanism. Fleets can combine compliance performance, allowing stronger results from some ships to be considered alongside weaker results from others within the permitted arrangement. In practical terms, the provision recognises that companies operate groups of vessels with different trading patterns and technical characteristics.

The Commission’s notes also set out a timetable for time spent alongside. Passenger ships and container ships must use onshore power or another zero-emission technology at berth from 2030 in covered EU ports. From 2035, the requirement extends to all EU ports equipped with onshore power.

That timetable gives ports and operators a defined period in which to prepare. It also connects ship compliance with land-side infrastructure, since a vessel cannot use shore electricity without a suitable connection and the necessary port equipment. The rule consequently reaches beyond the ship’s machinery to the way ports provide energy at the quayside.

Reporting begins before the first deadline

Companies must monitor energy use from 1 January 2025. Their first FuelEU Report is due by 31 January 2026. Monitoring is therefore not a later administrative add-on. It is part of the regime from its opening day, creating a record that will support the first reporting cycle.

For the European shipping sector, the immediate change is the start of a common measurement and reporting framework for larger vessels using EU ports. The longer view is a sequence of progressively higher performance requirements, combined with a berth-power timetable and a fleet-pooling option. FuelEU Maritime has thus begun as both a compliance system and a signal that ship energy use will be assessed over a multi-decade transition.

The Commission says the framework is designed to decarbonise the maritime sector. Its first numerical obligation is modest compared with the 2050 target, but the direction is explicit: a 2 per cent reduction against the baseline in 2025, followed by staged tightening towards 80 per cent.

Reporting note This Maritime Gazette report is independently written from cited factual information published by European Commission, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport.