The Spanish shipowners ask that the revenues generated by the ETS system of exchange of quotas of emissions of the European Union are reinvested in the marine transport and that Europe moves towards a global regulation for the decarbonization of the shipping industry to be defined within the International Maritime Organization.

Thursday in Madrid, in the course of the public event after the general assembly of the association, the president of the ANAVE, Vicente Boluda Fos, has evidenced that this issue represents one of the priorities of the shipowning industry in view of the next revision of the EU ETS system previewed from the European Commission for mid July. "The revenue deriving from the marine ETS - it has emphasized - must be reinvested in the marine field", as recommended by the conclusions recently adopted from the Council of the transports of the EU on the European marine industrial strategy(of the8 June 2026), which - Boluda has remembered - "encourages the Member States to use the revenue generated from the inclusion of the marine transport in the ETS to support the energy transition of the sector itself".

The association has remarked that, according to the data made known by the same EU commission, in the first year of implementation of the system the navigation companies subject to the Spanish administration have yielded more than five million emission quotas, for an approximate value of 380 million euros, and that the projections indicate a total of more than five billion euros by 2030. ANAVE has denounced that, on the contrary, the Spanish national plan of decarbonization of the marine transport previews to provide to the shipping only 250 million euros between 2026 and 2030. "The gap - it has found Boluda - is evident".

Boluda has argued that the release of the resources would allow the sector to finance "the renewal of the ships, the adaptation of the existing boats, the energy efficiency, the renewable fuels, the OPS systems and the reduction of the cost differential of the alternatives to low emissions". Moreover, it hoped that the aid will be structured in the framework of agile and technologically neutral regulatory frameworks, adapted to the realities of the fleet, both for the newly constructed ships and for the adaptation of those already in service. Boluda noted that the revision of the European system of exchange of emission quotas should also aim to prepare for future convergence with the international framework defined within the IMO, and "not to consolidate a permanent regional system which overlaps the international framework". "Maritime transport - it has specified - it needs global rules".

ANAVE also called for the maintenance and extension of exemptions for islands and outer regions. Boluda has emphasized that the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla will continue to depend on the marine transport for their connectivity and for the supplies even after the 2030. Penalizing these services - it has evidenced - "offers a very limited climate advantage and increases the cost of life for residents".

Boluda then asked for a revision of the ETS system to prevent the transfer of the goods from the sea to the road, because "if an environmental legislation makes the mode of transport more expensive and moves the traffic towards solutions with higher emissions, the result is counterproductive".

Emphasisting that the Spanish marine transport has maintained the services, adapted the routes, continued to invest, formed students and guaranteed the connectivity with the territories without equivalent alternatives, Boluda has concluded highlighting the need of "international rules to compete to equal weapons, ETS resources destined to the decarbonization of the marine transport itself, an entrepreneurial context able to attract investments in the marine field, an agile administration and a marine strategy that passes from the theory"