EU urges united front as IMO faces renewed resistance over global shipping decarbonisation framework

Brussels is pushing EU governments to stand firm in London this week as the International Maritime Organization resumes talks on its long-delayed net-zero shipping framework, a package seen as central to the sector’s decarbonisation but now facing renewed political resistance.

According to a letter seen by Euronews, member states have been told to act in concert and to oppose any move that would strip out the IMO’s net-zero framework. The instruction underlines the European Commission’s view that shipping must stay aligned with the bloc’s climate neutrality target for 2050, even as Brussels tries to avoid fragmenting the global market with regionally divergent rules.

The IMO has been trying to turn the framework into binding rules since last year. The proposal combines a global fuel standard, which would gradually lower the carbon intensity of marine fuels, with a pricing mechanism for emissions above agreed thresholds. The idea is to create a common international system that rewards cleaner vessels and helps fund the transition, rather than leaving shipowners to navigate a patchwork of national schemes.

That ambition was set back sharply in October, when a vote on the package was delayed for a year after opposition from the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia, among others. The IMO has now adjourned the extraordinary meeting of its Marine Environment Protection Committee until 2026, while an intersessional working group continues to refine the implementation details.

IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez has urged delegates not to relive the confrontation of last autumn, calling for pragmatic talks and insisting there is no need to repeat the same clash. His appeal reflects the broader concern inside the organisation that extended deadlock would weaken regulatory certainty just as the shipping industry faces mounting pressure from investors, cargo owners and policymakers to cut emissions.

The stakes are significant. International shipping is responsible for roughly 2% to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EU’s own framing, and the bloc wants a framework that keeps the sector on a path to net zero by 2050 without undermining competitiveness. That balance remains difficult: if other major trading nations do not match Europe’s ambition, EU-based operators could face higher compliance costs than rivals.

The Commission’s line also shows how Brussels is trying to defend its own domestic climate rules while still backing a universal solution through the IMO. Under the EU system, shipping emissions from vessels above 5,000 gross tonnage are already meant to fall by 2% in 2025, rising to 6% in 2030 and then continuing down towards an 80% reduction by mid-century.

Yet the EU’s internal unity is not complete. Two diplomats told Euronews that Greece, Italy and Malta remain cautious about the compromise text now under discussion, even though most member states are said to support it. For Brussels, keeping the bloc together will be as important as persuading sceptics outside Europe.

Industry pressure is building as well. A broad coalition of shipping interests, representing around half of the world merchant fleet, has urged the IMO to reopen its approach to decarbonising global shipping, according to Ocean Economist. At the same time, the Clean Shipping Coalition has called on governments to resist renewed efforts to delay the package and to keep momentum behind measures to improve the sector’s carbon intensity.

For shipowners, the outcome matters far beyond diplomacy. If the framework is revived and adopted, it could bring the first genuinely global carbon pricing signal for maritime transport, with major implications for fuel choice, fleet renewal and green shipping investment. If it stalls again, the sector could be left with greater uncertainty over when, and on what terms, the transition away from high-emitting fuels will finally become mandatory.