High-level representatives from across the maritime sector gathered in Brussels last week to launch the e-Sustainable Marine Fuels Early Movers Initiative. Building on a position paper with 23 signatories from across the maritime value chain, the event combined targeted proposals for European policymakers with tangible solutions to support the decarbonisation and independence of European shipping trade.
It is significant that the position paper unites 23 founding signatories with distinct commercial interests and priorities, spanning shipowners, fuel producers, port operators, financiers, and industry associations. While each faces different barriers to market creation, they have all converged on the same conclusion: a double-sided auction is the mechanism best placed to address them. Additional signatories can express interest in joining the platform until 1 July.
Signalling the strategic importance to Europe of a sustainable maritime sector, MEP Jeannette Baljeu (Renew) opened the launch event. She cited several challenges facing maritime fuel market creation, noting that public funding must be scaled up and better aligned with market needs. She also highlighted that the long-term certainty projects require – horizons of around 25 years or roughly two investment cycles – is still missing from current frameworks. Baljeu pointed to double-sided auctions as a solution to these challenges, as they would help Europe reduce its fossil fuel dependency, strengthen its autonomy, and lead on sustainable fuel production.
The launch event, co-hosted by the H2Global Foundation, Transport & Environment, and Hydrogen Europe, featured a high-level panel of representatives from the European Commission and across the shipping and clean energy sectors. Together, they laid out both the scale of the challenge and the urgent case for action. Speakers repeatedly identified a structural deadlock: fuel producers cannot reach final investment decisions without demand certainty, while shipowners cannot commit without guaranteed supply. Persistent policy uncertainty around RED III and the lack of a clear e-fuels target under FuelEU Maritime were cited as key factors compounding the problem.
The panel explored how to break the deadlock. Lise Duetoft, Chief Strategy Officer at Höegh Autoliners, offered the shipowner's perspective, noting that cargo customers are unwilling to pay the green fuel premium, making market intervention essential to bridge the gap. Even for shipowners willing to pilot alternative fuels such as ammonia, commercial viability remains uncertain. Ammonia propulsion technology is still maturing, and without a mechanism to align short-term shipping contracts with the long-term offtake visibility that fuel projects require to reach a final investment decision, investment will not follow.
From the investor's perspective, Dr Nicolas Brahy, Founder and Comex Member at Hy24 and President of France Hydrogène, stressed that the design of any double-auction mechanism must draw lessons from the European Hydrogen Bank. He identified key risks to avoid: strategic bidding, completion bonds that disadvantage SMEs, and contract durations too short to attract long-term financing. Funders, he argued, must also address budgetary rules so that double-sided auctions are not required to cover the entire risk.
Annika Kroon, Head of Unit for Maritime Transport and Logistics at the European Commission’s DG MOVE, signalled clear institutional support for the initiative. She noted that experience with one-sided auctions had demonstrated their limitations, and she emphasised that the mechanism should be framed as an energy security instrument just as much as a decarbonisation tool.
Stephen Jackson, CEO of Ammonia Europe, pointed to the Fertiglobe ammonia project – funded through an H2Global double-sided auction – as evidence of the mechanism's capacity to deliver price discovery and de-risk investment. "Double-auction mechanisms can play a critical role in accelerating the deployment of clean shipping fuels in Europe," he stated. "By providing certainty to both producers and end users, these schemes can help close the green premium, unlock investment, and create the market conditions needed to scale low-carbon ammonia as a key maritime fuel."
Thomas Stijntjes, Business Manager for Energy and Infrastructure at the Port of Rotterdam, pointed to the infrastructure dimension, highlighting that bunkering readiness must be factored into auction design from the outset. "For sustainable fuels to scale, they need to be allowed, available, and affordable," he said. "Bringing these elements together in a coordinated way is essential to accelerate the transition."
The e-SMF Early Movers Initiative builds on a model already successfully applied in aviation. In December 2025, eight EU member states launched the e-SAF Early Movers Coalition at the margins of the Transport Council, committing to mobilise at least EUR 500 million for double-sided auctions to support synthetic aviation fuel, with Germany already progressing the first tender under that framework. The maritime equivalent now echoes this approach, with the upcoming meeting of the EU Transport Council providing an immediate opportunity for member states to signal their support. Taken together, these developments reflect a growing consensus that an H2Global double-sided auction mechanism is emerging as the instrument of choice for market creation in hard-to-abate transport, turning policy intent and industry demand into the credible first transactions that bring investment off the sidelines. The Initiative remains open to new members, and the organisers are calling on further companies and organisations from across the maritime value chain to join by 1 July, ahead of the European Commission’s upcoming announcement regarding the EU ETS revision.