„It is high time“

Freitag, 6. August 2021 - 13:15

Letter of appeal by the German maritime associations

BDB, BDS, BÖB, VBW, VDMA, VDR, VSM and ZDS on the Delegated Acts to the Taxonomy Regulation 2020/851

Hamburg July 23, 2021: Maritime associations are calling for a revision of the EU taxonomy criteria in order to avert a disaster in the maritime industry.

With the help of the so-called Taxonomy Regulation, which was already adopted in 2020, the European Union wants to set a legal framework for sustainable investments. To this end, the EU Commission has now defined the technical assessment criteria. Despite intensive participation in the consultation process, it has not yet been possible to design the sustainability criteria for shipping and shipbuilding in a way that is appropriate to the industry and open to new technologies.

In a joint fire letter, the maritime industry associations are now urgently appealing for the criteria - which affect shipping, shipbuilding and also ports - to be suspended so that they can be fundamentally revised before they come into force.

VSM Managing Director Dr. Ralf Sören Marquardt commented:

"The approach of assessing ship emissions exclusively at the smokestack and not the climate neutrality of fuel and propulsion technology as a whole is wrong, does not solve the climate crisis and will do serious damage to the innovation and competitiveness of the maritime industry.
It is high time! By going it alone regionally in defining sustainable ships, we risk dropping out of the global market and ushering in the maritime de-industrialization of Europe.
"

Please see the updated joint statement of the maritime associations for the complex details of our criticism. In great unity, the German government and the German parliamentarians are called upon to intervene in the European Council and the European Parliament, respectively, in order to avert the disaster of the maritime economy in a "maneuver of the last moment".