South Korea revises regulations to encourage adoption of green ships

South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) on Tuesday (19 August) said it has revised the regulations on the standards and certification of environmentally friendly vessels to further promote and support green shipping and shipbuilding sectors. 

The major revisions, which took effect on 21 August, include expanding the scope of eco-friendly ship certification so that not only ship owners but also shipbuilders can receive it and improving it so that final certification can be obtained even if it’s different from the preliminary certification due to unavoidable reasons such as design changes.

The revisions also reflect the internationally accepted Energy Efficiency Ship Index (EEXI) and Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) as standards for eco-friendly ships, thereby making the system more realistic.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has been operating an Eco-Friendly Ship Certification System that verifies the degree of greenhouse gas reduction of ships and assigns certification grades (1 to 5) in accordance with the Eco-Friendly Ship Act that went into effect in January 2020. To date, a total of 119 eco-friendly ships have received certification (as of July 2025).

Seong-yong Choi, Deputy Director of the Safety Policy Division of the ministry, said, “Following the implementation of the eco-friendly equipment certification system in February, we expect that the demand for eco-friendly certification will increase significantly in the future with the overall improvement and supplementation of this certification system.” 

“We will continue to promote government-level acquisition tax reductions (up to 2 percentage points) and construction financing support (up to 30% of the ship price) for eco-friendly certified ships to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases in the shipping industry.”

Manifold Times previously reported MOF announcing the government, local governments, and public institutions in South Korea plan to invest approximately KRW 222.3 billion (USD 154 million) to support the building or conversion of 81 environment-friendly ships.

The public sector plans to build a total of 34 environment-friendly vessels, including electric-powered or hybrid ships, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, 15 operating ships will be equipped with diesel particulate filters (DPF) to reduce fine dust emissions.

Related: South Korea to invest USD 154 million into construction of environment-friendly ships

Photo credit: Lauren Seo on Unsplash|
Published: 22 August, 2025