Shipping contributes an estimated €9bn a year to EU and member state budgets through the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), according to a new study by the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), which is calling for those revenues to be directed back into the sector’s energy transition.

The study, published on 6 July, claims to be the first to quantify the breakdown of shipping’s ETS contributions at a national level across EU member states. Under a carbon price scenario of €100 per tonne of CO₂, shipping is estimated to bring in around €7.7bn in national revenues, with an additional share accruing to EU-level budgets, totalling approximately €9bn. At a lower price of €85 per tonne, the figures fall to €6.6bn in national revenues and €7.65bn in total.

Despite the scale of these revenues, ECSA contends that the money is largely not being reinvested in the maritime sector’s energy transition. The European Commission’s 2025 Carbon Market Report found that member states spent around 5% of total ETS revenues on the energy transition of the economy as a whole, with only a small number of EU member states earmarking a dedicated share of ETS revenue from shipping for clean technology or sustainable fuel support.

The shortfall is particularly notable given the scale of investment required. According to ECSA, the energy transition of European shipping alone is estimated to require around €40bn annually, while sustainable fuels currently cost, on average, four times more than conventional marine fuels. ECSA also notes that Europe accounts for only 10% of global sustainable fuel production, with less than 5% of that intended for maritime use, compared with Asia’s 74% share of fuel production projects.

European shipowners, according to ECSA, currently represent 44% of the global orderbook for ships designed to run on sustainable fuels — a figure the association uses to argue that fleet investment is outpacing fuel availability.

Martin Dorsman, ECSA’s secretary general, said: “Our new analysis shows that shipping contributes in total up to €9bn annually to the EU and national budgets. We need to see these revenues invested in the energy transition of the sector. The upcoming revision of the EU ETS, expected in July, is an opportunity to require member states to use this money at national level to bridge the price gap and support sustainable fuel availability and clean tech projects.”

ECSA is urging that the forthcoming EU ETS revision include a requirement for member states to reinvest their shipping-derived ETS revenues into clean fuel availability and clean technology projects.

The full study is available here.