Europe’s shipping and aviation sectors are intensifying pressure on policymakers to act decisively on clean fuel availability, warning that the continent risks losing its competitiveness without urgent intervention. The call comes ahead of the European Commission’s anticipated publication of the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan this week.
In a joint statement, the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and Airlines for Europe (A4E) urged the European Commission and national governments to adopt an ambitious Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP) that accelerates production and uptake of low- and zero-carbon fuels.
The renewed appeal follows growing concerns that Europe’s decarbonisation targets could be undermined by high fuel costs, regulatory uncertainty and limited industrial capacity to produce sustainable alternatives at scale.
ECSA and A4E have outlined a series of measures they argue are essential for progress. These include: reinvesting revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) into decarbonisation initiatives; strengthening domestic sustainable fuel manufacturing; prioritising maritime and aviation sectors in fuel allocation; and simplifying access to the EU Innovation Fund, which is expected to mobilise approximately €40 billion in ETS revenues to support low-carbon technologies.
Europe’s shipping and aviation industries, the organisations’ statement explains, face some of the toughest challenges in achieving net zero. Both are capital-intensive, globally competitive sectors with limited short-term technological alternatives to fossil fuels. Ensuring affordable access to low-carbon fuels is, they argue, both a climate imperative and a strategic necessity for Europe’s connectivity, energy security and industrial leadership.
Transport & Environment (T&E), a European NGO, has echoed these concerns, emphasising that the STIP should focus on fuels meeting the principles of sustainability, scalability and sovereignty. In a recent report, T&E identified e-fuels, or renewable fuels of non-biological origin, as the only options capable of meeting all three criteria. The organisation called for a revenue certainty mechanism to help e-fuel projects reach final investment decisions in time to support the implementation of the EU’s FuelEU Maritime and ReFuelEU Aviation regulations.
T&E warns that the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF), a key mechanism supporting the roll-out of hydrogen and e-fuel networks, faces a potential funding gap after March 2026, when its final call for proposals is due, unless new resources are allocated. It has urged the EU to provide at least €1.5 billion to extend AFIF through the end of the current Multiannual Financial Framework in 2027.
ECSA has further stressed that support must go beyond early-stage pilot projects and focus on commercial-scale deployment of technologies already proven to work. Without this, Europe risks seeing production shift to other regions with more favourable industrial policies.
The debate around the STIP highlights a broader strategic challenge for the European Union: how to reconcile its climate ambitions with industrial competitiveness. As global competition for clean energy investment intensifies, shipping and aviation leaders are making clear that Europe’s next phase of transport decarbonisation will hinge on Europe’s ability to align policy ambition with commercial delivery.
