"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…