On March 19, DG CLIMA published the first report on the implementation of the EU ETS extension to maritime transport, providing an initial assessment of its impact since its entry into application on January 1, 2024, until the end of the third quarter of the same year.
The report evaluates different ways ETS costs can be avoided, such as by relocating transshipment activities or adding evasive port calls.
The report uses various data sources, including Eurostat, UNCTAD, and commercial datasets from Drewry and Econdb. Aside from analysing the voyages of vessels and cargo flows, the report also assesses investment patterns.
Although ETS Maritime features a 300-nautical-mile threshold for excluding non-EEA ports from the definition of port of call, the report also focuses on investments into West African ports beyond this threshold.
The Commission study concludes that there is currently no concrete evidence of relocation of container transshipment activities or the reordering of port calls at the expense of ports in the EEA.
FEPORT welcomes the Commission’s efforts to monitor the impacts of ETS Maritime and its commitment to propose measures in case negative impacts are established. The Commission’s monitoring could be further improved by including more case studies and using predictive tools. FEPORT looks forward to continuing its participation in the discussions on the monitoring of ETS Maritime and the adoption of anti-evasion measures.
The full report can be accessed here.
