The Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London has postponed the vote on the net zero framework and CO2 taxation. The extraordinary meeting is to be resumed in 12 months. In the meantime, the member states want to continue working towards a consensus on the regulations.

The IMO's net zero framework was included as a new chapter in the draft revision of Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) at the 83rd session of the MEPC in April 2025. However, without the USA, which did not attend this meeting. It includes international regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships from 2023 and contains two key elements: a global fuel standard and a global mechanism for pricing ship emissions.

The Trump administration had - predictably - previously threatened IMO member states with severe legal sanctions if they supported the MEPC's draft CO2 emissions regulations. Promoting "activist-driven climate policies" under the IMO net-zero framework could lead to sanctions, tariffs, port fees, economic sanctions related to US government contracts or visa restrictions for seafarers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy warned in a joint statement ahead of the meeting.

From the US government's perspective, the framework is tantamount to a "European-led neo-colonial export of global climate regulation". This is because, by and large, the new net zero framework, even if it is not usually discussed as a "tax", will be the first and only global financial sanction for carbon emissions. The US announcement then includes a rather blunt threat to penalise countries that vote in favour of the IMO's carbon tax scheme by imposing costs on them. "Our colleagues in the IMO should brace themselves," warned the US ministers.

kdk, The Maritime Executive