As the world’s second-largest maritime power, France possesses numerous strengths: its fleet, its ports, its shipyards, its equipment manufacturers and its engineering firms, which together form a maritime industrial sector of excellence – integrated and export-oriented – capable of designing, producing, converting and operating the ships of today and tomorrow. This comprehensive sector is essential to logistical, industrial and technological sovereignty.

Whilst maritime transport is vital for the flow of economic activity, the shipbuilding industry forms its strategic foundation. Shipyards, equipment manufacturers and design offices form an ecosystem of excellence serving the interests of sovereignty, employment and reindustrialisation.

With a turnover of more than €15 billion, over half of which comes from exports, a structural trade surplus of €3 to 4 billion, 56,000 direct jobs and 760 companies spread across the country, it ranks among the most successful export-oriented industrial sectors. Through its dual expertise in both the civil and military sectors, it supports critical technologies and undertakes the construction, conversion and maintenance of all types of vessels, including cargo ships, ferries, warships, cable-laying vessels and surveillance vessels.

Furthermore, ports, as critical infrastructure, ensure logistical continuity, security of supply and regional economic development, whilst playing a key role in the maritime sector’s ecological transition and the emergence of new industrial sectors.

The inclusion of the maritime sector in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which has been in force since January 2024, must serve as a resource to drive the sector’s transformation. The resulting revenue must therefore be entirely earmarked for financing the Strategic Decarbonisation Plan, in accordance with the spirit of the European regulation.

The total annual funding requirement covered by the ETS share is estimated at €350 million, out of a total of €1.4 billion per year required to achieve net zero by 2050. The maritime ETS will therefore cover 25 per cent of the overall requirement. The remaining 75 per cent will come mainly from private investment and existing schemes.

This collective financial commitment demonstrates the unprecedented commitment of the entire sector.

The Strategic Plan is structured around three key objectives: deploying and operating decarbonised vessels; transforming French ports into multi-energy decarbonised hubs; and strengthening production capacity and the development of decarbonised equipment.

The expected benefits are considerable: the creation of 35,000 jobs, support for a sector that is vital to the French economy, the modernisation of port infrastructure as a catalyst for industrial and logistical growth, a contribution to national reindustrialisation, and the achievement of the environmental targets set by the European ‘Fit for 55’ initiative and the IMO.

A vision shared by leaders

“We are calling for a maritime transition pact, in which the State, local authorities, businesses, trade unions and citizens commit themselves together. Decarbonisation must be a driver of sovereignty, competitiveness and industrial excellence,” said Pierre Éric POMMELLET, President of GICAN and CEO of Naval Group.

Édouard LOUIS-DREYFUS, President of Armateurs de France and the Louis Dreyfus Armateurs Group, added: “We have the technologies. We have the solutions. We have the excellence of French know-how. What we lack today is the capacity to deploy these solutions on a large scale, to make them accessible, competitive and suitable for industrial production. Our ambition is clear. Our proposals are concrete. Now we must stay the course. We hope that this course can be set as early as the next meeting of the Interministerial Committee on the Sea.”

Hervé MARTEL, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille, representing the UPF, stated: “This collective effort presented to you this evening is therefore not only a matter of efficiency but also an economic issue for our country – and I would even say one of national and European sovereignty.”

The PSDM will be presented at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3) in early June in Nice.