EU ETS and FuelEU 2026: Methane Counts, Scoping Rules Bite

Two Overlapping Rules, One 2026 Budget

Every ship of 5,000 GT and above calling at an EU port, regardless of flag, now sits under two separate EU climate frameworks: the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and FuelEU Maritime. According to the European Commission’s climate action pages, both frameworks changed in ways that affect operating costs in the current compliance year, and both carry scoping rules that determine whether a voyage or port call is counted at all.

EU ETS: Methane and Nitrous Oxide Now in Scope

Since January 2024, the EU ETS has applied to CO2 emissions from qualifying ships entering EU ports. The system covers 50% of emissions on voyages that start or end outside the EU, and 100% of emissions between two EU ports and while vessels are within EU ports.

The practical change for 2026: the ETS now also covers methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, not just CO2. For LNG-fuelled fleets, this matters because methane slip is a measurable quantity in real operations, not a negligible rounding figure. Maritime emissions remain inside the overall ETS cap, which tightens over time.

Separately, on 17 July 2026 the Commission proposed a targeted revision of the ETS to support the EU’s 2040 climate target, including strengthening the scheme for aviation and maritime transport. This is a proposal, not enacted law, and should not be treated as current obligation. For context on scale, the Commission notes maritime transport accounted for 3 to 4% of total EU CO2 emissions, over 124 million tonnes in 2021.

FuelEU Maritime: Yearly Averages and Two Scoping Traps

FuelEU Maritime (Regulation (EU) 2023/1805) has applied fully since 1 January 2025, aside from monitoring-plan articles 8 and 9, which took effect in August 2024. It sets a yearly average limit on the greenhouse gas intensity of energy used aboard qualifying ships, measured well-to-wake across CO2, methane and nitrous oxide. Required reductions against a 2020 baseline rise from 2% in 2025 to 6% by 2030, 14.5% by 2035, and eventually 80% by 2050. From 2030, passenger and container ships at berth in AFIR-covered ports must use shore power or another zero-emission solution, extending to all EU ports with shore-power capacity from 2035.

Two scoping details change what actually gets counted:

Norway and Iceland as third countries. Because FuelEU has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement, Norwegian and Icelandic ports are treated as third-country ports for FuelEU purposes from 1 January 2025 until incorporation occurs.

Transhipment ports excluded. An implementing regulation lists neighbouring container transhipment ports whose calls do not count as a FuelEU port of call.

Fleet managers trading in Northern Europe or relying on transhipment hubs should check both lists before assuming a call counts toward compliance.

Apeks view — The operational risk here isn’t the headline percentages, it’s the scoping detail. Whether methane slip counts, whether a Norwegian call is third-country, whether a transhipment stop drops out of the average — these determine actual liability, not press summaries. Compliance teams need documented, voyage-by-voyage records reconciled against both frameworks’ rules, not an assumption that a port call counts. Judgement on edge cases still has to sit with people who know the trade lanes.