The countdown has begun for Greek shipping, which must renew its fleet with ships with a low environmental footprint.
From 2030 onwards, the exemption of Greek maritime transport (outside Crete) from the emissions trading system ends.
The president of the Association of Passenger Maritime Transport Companies (SEEN), Dionysis Theodoratos, highlighted, within the scope of the conference “The green transition of coastal navigation: challenges and perspectives for insularity”, held by the University of the Aegean, that coastal navigation maritime transport will lose approximately 420 million euros per year due to the payment of pollution duties and the reduction in passenger traffic.
During the conference, reference was also made to the fact that the Italians had acted quickly to secure funds for their country’s coastal shipping, while the Secretary General of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Island Policy, Manolis Koutoulakis, said that the Greek State had also will advance at an accelerated pace.
In addition to coastal shipping, the short sea shipping fleet is also an important problem.
The president of the Hellenic Short Sea Shipowners Association, Charalambos Simantonis, proposed the inclusion of the national short sea shipping fleet in the Recovery Fund.
The proposal was accepted, since short-sea national navigation ships connect the country’s continental body to the islands. Shortsea Shipping’s national shipping fleet is made up of 102 ships, of which 35 are general cargo ships with an average age of 45 years, while the remainder are fuel carriers with an average age of 35 years.
“Available financing tools are necessary to modernize the short sea fleet so that the ship is sustainable, as green technology almost doubles the price of the ship.
At the same time, adequate infrastructure must be created in ports, because there cannot be a “green” ship without a “green” port. The national legislative framework must be modernized and harmonized with new data”, said Simantonis.