An extraordinary IMO meeting with extraordinary circumstances for the future of shipping

A week of tension and uncertainty has drawn to a close at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), ending with a delay for shipping decarbonization and the future of our planet. With big players like the USA and Saudi Arabia applying pressure and using every tactic to slow progress, Seas At Risk is disappointed that the adoption of the Net Zero Framework (NZF) has been officially postponed for another year, leaving shipping adrift on its pathway to decarbonization.

Even though the NZF is far from perfect, delays and further IMO discussions result in business as usual, polluting ships and IMO’s own decarbonisation strategy targets becoming unobtainable.

The NZF, as it stands, is the result of three years of discussions from national delegate countries and is the only global regulation for greenhouse gas reduction measures, which aims at avoiding patchworked national regulation. What should have been a clear path toward climate action was clouded by politics, emotion and division.

Shipping needs to clean up its act, regardless of today’s outcome. Now it relies on countries listening to their citizens and industry. Scaling up wind propulsion, which saves on fuel costs and lowers emissions, and making expensive zero emission fuels financially competitive with their polluting counterparts. Business as usual means rising costs, rising seas and the harshest climate impacts falling on those least able to withstand them.

“Getting the Net-Zero Framework adopted in this MEPC ES.2, however imperfect, was fundamental for shipping to stay within reach of its own decarbonation targets”, said Anaïs Rios, Senior Shipping Policy Officer, Seas At Risk. “Emotions have run high this week at the IMO, with once high-ambitious alliances wavering and strategies eclipsing reason. With talk of unity versus division, no single flag should dictate the world’s climate course. With countries like Saudi Arabia leading efforts to delay, few expected a postponement to prevail, but here we are. What matters now is that countries rise up and come back to the IMO with a louder and more confident yes vote that cannot be silenced. The planet and the future of shipping does not have time to waste.