London talks raise hopes for green shipping deal

Share: X (Twitter) Facebook LinkedIn WhatsApp Email Print A relatively ambitious deal to reduce the shipping industry's 3% of global emissions now looks more likely after four days of closed-door talks in London, observers say. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which oversees the negotiations, said there had been "constructive discussions" and "genuine willingness within the group to make concrete further progress". Em Fenton, senior director at the NGO Opportunity Green who attended the talks last week, said they "demonstrated a strong spirit of solidarity in the face of blatant attempts to undermine the credibility, ambition and equity of a hard-fought multilateral agreement". Log in here → Upgrade to keep reading For 15 years we’ve rigorously reported on the decisions shaping our climate. Upgrading to a paid subscription is how readers like you help keep this work going.  £40/quarter → Or £130/year — best value. A relatively ambitious deal to reduce the shipping industry's 3% of global emissions now looks more likely after four days of closed-door talks in London, observers say. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which oversees the negotiations, said there had been "constructive discussions" and "genuine willingness within the group to make concrete further progress". Em Fenton, senior director at the NGO Opportunity Green who attended the talks last week, said they "demonstrated a strong spirit of solidarity in the face of blatant attempts to undermine the credibility, ambition and equity of a hard-fought multilateral agreement". After several years of debate, governments provisionally agreed in April 2025 on a "Net-Zero Framework" (NZF) - a series of emissions reduction targets for shipowners aimed at incentivising them to use cleaner fuels, backed up with financial rewards for meeting the targets and fees for missing them. But in October 2025, after a high-profile intervention , the US convinced a majority of voting nations to postpone the adoption of the NZF for a year. UCL analysis found that, of those who expressed a view at last week's talks, 38 were in favour of an NZF-style solution while only 17 were against. Those opposed are "consistently composed of strongly fossil fuel-aligned governments". An observer of the talks, who did not want to be named, said the countries opposed include the US, Russia, India, Thailand, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay, as well as eight oil-rich Gulf nations and shipowner-reliant Liberia and Panama. Governments that support an NZF-style deal include China, Brazil, Mexico, Türkiye, Canada, Australia, Chile, nine African nations, most European countries and small islands.