"EU risks falling behind China in the race to develop green shipping fuels" (T&E briefing)

Transport & Environment (T&E) warned on 30/07/2026 that the EU could fall behind China in producing e-fuels for shipping, unless it narrows the cost gap between EU-made fuel and fossil options.

The warning draws on T&E's updated e-fuels tracker, alongside comments from the group's maritime policy team, who contend that stronger EU financial backing and clean-fuel requirements are needed to keep the EU's growing list of projects from stalling before reaching production.

In T&E's view, Europe has no shortage of proposed projects, but struggles to move them to production, while shipping companies keep defaulting to imported LNG or biofuels instead of European e-fuels.

Europe hosts 69 e-fuel projects for the maritime sector, but only six of them are operational. Spain ranks first, followed by Denmark, Finland and France, an expansion driven by the EU's 2023 FuelEU Maritime target. Were every project to reach operation, T&E calculates they could produce up to 4.09 Mtoe of e-fuels by 2033, covering 14% of European shipping's fuel needs. Although slow, there are signs of progress: the…