Container lines would get a bigger carbon discount the further they sail into or out of the EU, under changes to the bloc's emissions trading scheme proposed by the MEP drafting the European Parliament's transport committee opinion.
Matteo Ricci, an Italian MEP who sits with the centre-left Socialists and Democrats group, would scrap the European Commission's 10,000 TEU threshold and apply the discount to all container ships on voyages of more than 3,000 nautical miles between an EU and a non-EU port, in either direction (see attached file). Lines would surrender allowances for 45% of emissions on voyages of 3,000 to 4,000 nautical miles, falling in steps to 15% beyond 9,700.
The Commission proposed the relief in July only for ships of 10,000 TEU and above sailing into the EU, with the carbon bill reduced according to the share of boxes the ship unloads at the EU port only to be reloaded onto another ship bound outside the bloc. That method "would be difficult to implement, as it would require the monitoring and verification of cargo data for each port call", Mr Ricci writes. The pull to divert a call depends on the carbon cost avoided, which tends to rise with distance, he argues; distance is also easier to check, and would treat all EU ports equally while protecting direct calls at gateway ports.
He cites the ETS observatory run by Puertos del Estado, Spain's state ports body, which finds that the loss of long-distance container services to neighbouring non-EU ports has become structural. Europe's private terminal operators want a different fix. In a statement on 30 September, the Federation of European Private Port Companies and Terminals (FEPORT) urged MEPs to keep the Commission's cargo-based discount but extend it to the outbound leg of a voyage and to ships of 5,000 to 10,000 TEU.
Mr Ricci would also lift the allowances reserved for cleaner shipping fuels and propulsion from 110 million to 200 million, limited to fuel bunkered in EU ports or on green corridors with them, with at least 20% kept for smaller companies, short-sea operators, ferries and island routes. An annual leakage monitor would track port market share, reflagging, freight rates and ship sizes, using emissions reporting, Paris MoU and EMSA data, and require the Commission to report, and where needed propose fixes, within nine months of a sustained shift.
On other exemptions, his text matches word for word the draft report published on 15 September by Peter Liese, the German MEP steering the revision for the centre-right European People's Party. Both would phase out the ice-class discount by 2040 and replace the exemptions for islands, outermost regions and public-service routes with a phase-in from 2034, reaching full liability in 2040. The Commission proposed extending them all to the end of 2035.
Mr Liese's companion report on aligning emissions reporting with the scheme and the FuelEU Maritime Regulation tables no amendments.
His explanatory statement repeats in writing the claim he made at a press briefing on 11 September: that the Trump administration "threatened to include the children of negotiators in consequences" if delegations did not follow its line at the IMO. At the briefing Mr Liese said the US threatened "kicking young people out of the United States that were there for study".
Committee amendments are due by 6 October, and the European Parliament's indicative date for a plenary vote is 14 December.
See also: US threatened children of IMO climate negotiators, says senior MEP; Emissions trading: Parliament negotiator moves to extend maritime derogations; Box terminals focus on Felixstowe amid concerns over ETS leakage