> Sustainability is a core element of our business. We have done a lot to ensure sustainability and worked hard to reduce our environmental effects. In the future, maritime decarbonisation will bring big changes into our operations and fleet. At the same time, we think small actions can make a big difference on climate change.

FuelEU Maritime will bring alternative fuels onboard ships

As part of the 2050 climate strategy, EU aims to promote usage of alternative fuels at sea with a new regulation, FuelEU Maritime, which will enter into force in January 2025. The regulation applies to all larger ships operating in the EU area and sets a requirement to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of ships’ fuel. For the first five years the required reduction is only 2 per cent but it will increase every five years. In addition, from 2030 onwards passenger vessels and container vessels will have to use onshore power at berth. Non-compliance will result in significant penalties.

Fuel’s GHG intensity includes the total lifecycle emissions caused during the fuel production, distribution and usage. Fossil fuels have the highest GHG intensity and, therefore, to be in compliance, ships must start to use certain amounts of alternative fuels as part of their fuel portfolio. Today, the alternative fuels available on a larger scale are biofuels and shoreside electricity. Pooling ships is possible, so that only some of the ships use the required amount of greener fuels instead of all the ships in the pool.

Going Green and Clean

Shoreside electricity is already used onboard five Finnlines ro-pax vessels at port. In addition, two of the ships, Finnsirius and Finncanopus, are equipped with shore power chargeable batteries the energy of which can be used at sea. Additionally we are also studying and planning usage of biofuels on some of our ships. FuelEU Maritime will cause some extra expenses as biofuels are much more expensive than the traditional fuels. However, use of greener fuels will certainly help us to reduce our emissions and enhance our sustainability.