Ahead of the Marine Environment Protection meeting Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which will open tomorrow in London and which is considered crucial for the possible approval of the draft regulation on the decarbonisation of the maritime sector agreed in the spring in the last session of the MEPC ( of the 11th April 2025), in a letter sent to the Secretary-General and to the delegations of the Member States of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) twenty-six producers of alternative fuels expressed their strong support for the draft Net-Zero Framework (NZF) regulation agreed last April which - they underlined - "represents a step forward as a political signal for the energy transition of the international maritime transport", but also have highlighted that "much work remains to ensure a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in line with the IMO Strategy 2023. The effectiveness of the NZF now depends on how the Guidelines for implementation and what signals policymakers give choose to incorporate it".

In particular, in the opinion of the 26 signatories of the letter, "The current regulatory framework does not provide signs of sufficiently strong investment for e-fuels. The NZF, in the its current wording, and without further priority allocated to e-fuels in their implementation guidelines, risks incentivizing "pay-to-pollute" strategies and, at the same time, at the same time, to stimulate investment in transition, such as liquefied natural gas, biofuels of first generation and blue fuels. This would leave the Scalable zero-emission e-fuels under-incentivized from the point of view of regulatory and
would delay large-scale implementation of the only long-term zero-emission fuels capable of ensure significant reductions in line with the IMO Strategy 2023. Without immediate and unambiguous signals for production and The use of e-fuels, the global fleet risks "getting bogged down" in short-term supply routes of fuels that compromise both ambition and cost-effectiveness over time."

Looking forward to the adoption of the Net-Zero Framework during the extraordinary session of the MEPC that will end on Friday The 26 signatories therefore urged to "incorporate a multiplier for e-fuels in the relevant EU NZF: A temporary, self-activating, non-monetary, and Low charges that count each unit of certified e-fuel multiple times (at least twice) for compliance purposes GHG Fuel Intensity, GFI). This targeted accelerator - they explained - would send essential signals upstream, allowing projects to final investment decisions and to expand the production of e-fuels is necessary. Temporary multipliers (or similar accounting accelerators) are a political tool to boost high-cost and low-cost fuels emissions, increasing the actual credit or reward that receive during an initial start-up period, thus reducing the risk of first-movers and mobilising offtake agreements to make investments".

They also call for dedicated and optimised rewards to be ensured the use of electric fuels, as part of the related to emission technologies, fuels and/or energy sources of zero or near-zero greenhouse gases and also ensure that the reward methodology is differentiated between fuels and technologies, recognising that different fuels and technologies have cost, environmental and production characteristics Different.

The letter is signed, among others, by European Energy, Liquid Wind, ET Fuels, HIF Global and Zero Waste.