CO₂ Value Europe has submitted its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP), a crucial initiative to support the scale-up of clean transport technologies and deliver on EU climate targets.
As part of our continued engagement, we emphasise the need for urgent action to unlock investments in Carbon Capture and Utilisation fuels, particularly for shipping and aviation, which remain among the most challenging sectors to abate in transport.
Our Key Recommendations:
🔵 Creating the Right Conditions for Final Investment Decisions (FIDs): Despite technological readiness, too few CCU fuel projects are reaching FID due to a lack of de-risking mechanisms and clear investment signals. We urge the EU to treat this as a top policy priority.
🔵 Go Beyond Innovation – Support Industrial Scale-Up: Current EU instruments such as the Innovation Fund and Hydrogen Bank focus either on early-stage innovation or either on efficiency of commercial-ready technologies. We need complementary tools to support deployment and commercialisation of CCU fuel technologies that are already technologically mature.
🔵 Ensure Equal Support for Sustainable Maritime Fuels: Just as SAFs are supported through the EU ETS, sustainable maritime fuels should benefit from equivalent policy backing to build investor confidence.
🔵 Introduce Double-Sided Auctions: These mechanisms can provide stable revenue guarantees and drive cost-effective deployment of synthetic fuels in both aviation and maritime.
🔵 Clarify Implementation at Member State Level: National authorities need stronger guidance on how to implement EU obligations & penalties, and greater transparency on the costs of inaction if they fail to scale alternative fuels.
🔵 Update and Align Regulatory Frameworks: Existing rules on synthetic fuels for aviation and shipping require a reality check to ensure they match the pace of deployment needed to meet 2030 and 2050 targets.
Read our full recommendations here.
