With the increasingly strict international GHG (greenhouse gas) emission regulations, higher requirements are placed on the propulsion system design of conventional ships. Playing an important role in ship design, construction and operation, ship–engine–propeller matching dominantly covers the CO₂ emission of the entire ship. In this paper, firstly, a ship propulsion system matching platform based on the ship–engine–propeller matching principle and its application on WinGD 5X52 marine diesel engine have been investigated. Meeting the energy efficiency design index (EEDI) regulation used to calculate the ship CO₂ emission is essential and ship–engine–propeller matching has to be carried out with EEDI into consideration. Consequently, a procedure is developed combining the system matching theory and EEDI calculation, which can provide the matching results as well as the corresponding EEDI value to study the relationship between EEDI and ship–engine–propeller matching. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis is performed to obtain the relationship of EEDI and system matching parameters, such as ship speed, effective power and propeller diameter, reflecting the trend and extent of EEDI when changing these three parameters. The results of system matching parameters satisfying different EEDI phases indicate the initial value selection in matching process to provide reference for the design of ship, engine and propeller under the EEDI regulations.