EU ETS Maritime · Technical reference
EU ETS for shipping: scope, phase-in and allowances due
How the EU ETS applies to ships: covered vessels and voyages, the half and full emission shares, the 2024–2026 phase-in, and how allowances due are calculated.
The EU Emissions Trading System is the one maritime obligation that ends in a purchase rather than a rating or a balance: a shipping company must buy and surrender one allowance for every tonne of covered emissions. Directive (EU) 2023/959 extended Directive 2003/87/EC to maritime transport from the 2024 reporting year Reg (EU) 2023/959 , using the verified emissions that ships already report under the EU MRV Regulation Reg (EU) 2015/757 . What the company owes is a product of three things — how much the ship emitted, how much of that a given voyage counts for, and how far the phase-in has progressed — and this page takes them in order, ending with a worked scenario that Carbonlogy recomputes every time this site is built.
Who is covered
Article 3ga of the Directive applies the system to cargo and passenger ships of 5,000 gross tonnage and above from 2024, with offshore ships of the same size following from 2027 Dir. 2003/87/EC · Art. 3ga . General cargo and offshore ships between 400 and 5,000 gross tonnage are not yet in the trading system, but from 2025 they report under the MRV Regulation as amended by Regulation (EU) 2023/957 Reg (EU) 2023/957 , ahead of a Commission review of their inclusion. The gases covered also widen over time: carbon dioxide from 2024, with methane and nitrous oxide added from the 2026 reporting year Dir. 2003/87/EC · Art. 3ga .
Which voyages count, and for how much
Not every tonne a covered ship emits is chargeable. Article 3ga assigns each voyage a geographic share Dir. 2003/87/EC · Art. 3ga : emissions on voyages between two ports in the European Economic Area, and while at berth in an EEA port, count in full; emissions on voyages between an EEA port and a port in a third country count for half; voyages that never touch an EEA port are outside the system. Carbonlogy stores these shares as the same scope factors it uses for EU MRV and FuelEU, because all three instruments draw the geographic line in the same place.
| Voyage scope | Weight |
|---|---|
| INTRA_EU | 1 |
| EU_INBOUND | 0.5 |
| EU_OUTBOUND | 0.5 |
| NON_EU | 0 |
The phase-in
The surrender obligation did not start at full strength. Article 3gb sets the share of verified emissions for which allowances must be surrendered in each of the first years, reaching the full amount from the 2026 reporting year Dir. 2003/87/EC · Art. 3gb . Carbonlogy stores the fractions as a coefficient set and reads them in the same calculation the product uses.
| Year | Chargeable fraction |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0.4 |
| 2025 | 0.7 |
| 2026 | 1 |
The allowance obligation
Putting the three together gives the allowances due for a voyage or a reporting period: verified emissions, multiplied by the voyage's geographic share, multiplied by the year's phase-in fraction, one allowance per tonne.
- E
- verified emissions of the voyage or period (CO₂; CH₄ and N₂O added from 2026) [t CO₂e]
- svoyage
- geographic share: 1 for intra-EEA voyages and time at berth in EEA ports, 0.5 for voyages to or from a third-country port, 0 outside scope
- φyear
- phase-in fraction of the emission year (table below); 1 from 2026
- Allowances
- EUAs to surrender — one allowance per tonne of CO₂e [EUA]
A worked scenario — not a regulator figure
Unlike the FuelEU and CII examples in this hub, no regulator publishes a worked allowance calculation, so the example below is Carbonlogy's own hypothetical scenario. The rules it applies — the voyage share and the phase-in fraction — are the Directive's and are cited above; the resulting number is not. What the build-time verifier guarantees is that the product's calculation reproduces this result from the coefficient package every time this site is built; it does not, and cannot, guarantee that a regulator ever printed it.
Allowances for a hypothetical EEA-inbound voyage (2024)
Hypothetical scenario — no regulator publishes this figure: a 50,000 GT container ship (above the 5,000 GT threshold) sails from Singapore to Rotterdam in 2024, emitting 10,000 tCO₂ on the voyage. Half of the emissions of a voyage between a third-country port and an EEA port fall in scope, and 2024 is the 40 % phase-in year; every chargeable tonne is one EUA. The platform's estimate applies the 50 % share to the whole voyage total — at-berth emissions in the EEA port, which the Directive charges in full, are not attributed separately, so the figure is conservative-low.
- Emissions year
- 2024
- Gross tonnage
- 50000 GT
- Voyage scope
- EU_INBOUND
- Voyage CO₂
- 10000 tCO₂
- Geographic scope share (third country → EEA)
- 0.5
- Phase-in fraction (2024)
- 0.4
- In-scope emissions10000 × 0.5 = 5000 tCO₂
- Chargeable emissions after phase-in5000 × 0.4 = 2000 tCO₂
Last reviewed · Carbonlogy Compliance Team
How Carbonlogy applies it
For every voyage, Carbonlogy resolves the geographic share from the voyage's MRV scope, applies the phase-in fraction of the emission year and reports the allowances due next to the voyage's verified emissions, so the fleet's exposure for the year is visible before the surrender deadline rather than after it. Ships below the tonnage threshold and voyages outside the geographic scope are shown as out of scope, with the reason, rather than as zero.
Frequently asked questions
- When did shipping enter the EU ETS?
From 1 January 2024. Directive (EU) 2023/959 brought maritime transport into Directive 2003/87/EC, so emissions from 2024 onwards are covered, with the first allowances surrendered in 2025 for the 2024 reporting year. The obligation phases in over three years and applies in full from the 2026 reporting year.
- What share of emissions must be surrendered in 2024, 2025 and 2026?
40 percent of verified 2024 emissions, 70 percent of 2025 emissions and 100 percent from 2026 onwards, under Article 3gb of the Directive. The phase-in reduces the number of tonnes for which allowances are due; it is not a discount on the allowance price, and every allowance surrendered is a full allowance.
- Does the EU ETS apply to voyages outside the EU?
Partly. Voyages between two EEA ports and time at berth in an EEA port count in full, voyages between an EEA port and a third-country port count for half of their emissions, and voyages entirely between non-EEA ports are out of scope, under Article 3ga of the Directive.
- Is the EU ETS separate from FuelEU Maritime and CII?
Yes. The EU ETS prices verified emissions through allowances, FuelEU Maritime regulates the greenhouse-gas intensity of the energy a ship uses, and the IMO CII rates operational carbon intensity per unit of transport work. The same ship carries all three obligations at once; none of them substitutes for another, and each uses its own scope rules.
Sources cited
- [1]Directive 2003/87/EC (EU ETS), as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/959 — Article 3ga — scope of application to maritime transport (voyage shares: 100 % intra-EEA and at berth, 50 % to/from third countries)EUR-Lex
- [2]Directive 2003/87/EC (EU ETS), as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/959 — Article 3gb — phase-in of surrender requirements (40 % of 2024, 70 % of 2025, 100 % from 2026)EUR-Lex
- [3]Regulation (EU) 2023/959 — maritime extension of the EU ETSEUR-Lex
- [4]Regulation (EU) 2023/957 — amending Regulation (EU) 2015/757 (EU MRV) for the ETSEUR-Lex
- [5]Regulation (EU) 2015/757 (EU MRV)EUR-Lex
All citations checked automatically · updated 2026-08-28