The Spanish port management authority, Puertos del Estado (PDE), says the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is having a measurable impact on port connectivity across Europe. The regulation is forcing shipping lines to change their service networks with fewer direct calls at European ports, the organization says.
To tackle the trend, PDE is proposing two measures: widening the definition of transshipment ports and adding a Carbon Leakage Factor intended to discourage the practice of “route splitting,” where carriers tweak routes to lessen their exposure to EU carbon costs.
The results are from Observatory, a monitoring group set up by PDE, which analysed data from port calls between January 2023 and March 2026. The report says that since the start of the EU ETS, direct port connectivity has decreased by 5% at ports in Northern Europe and by 18% at ports in the Mediterranean.
These changes reflect a strategic reorganization of liner shipping services, with operators increasingly calling at ports outside the European Union, notably Egypt and the United Kingdom, PDE said.
The Observatory warned in its report that the shift is becoming structural with shipping services, terminal operations and commercial contracts increasingly being concentrated around non-EU hubs.
While acknowledging that other factors have also influenced global shipping patterns, including the conflict in the Middle East that disrupted traffic through the Suez Canal and the ongoing restructuring of major liner shipping alliances, market analyst Alphaliner concluded that these developments alone do not explain the significant rise in connectivity at British and Egyptian ports.
Alphaliner’s assessment shows that around 76% of the observed changes in port calls can be directly attributed to the effect of the EU ETS, underlining the growing importance of environmental regulation in the design of the global shipping network and the competitiveness of European ports.
