The future of the global shipping industry – and its 3% share of global emissions – will be decided in three weeks of talks in the third quarter of this year, after a decision taken in London on Friday. At the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) headquarters this week, governments largely failed to substantively negotiate a controversial set of measures to penalise polluting ships and reward vessels running on clean fuels known as the Net-Zero Framework. The green shipping plan has been aggressively opposed by fossil fuel-producing nations, in particular by the US and Saudi Arabia. This week, countries delivered statements outlining their views on the measures in a session that ran from Wednesday into Thursday. Then, late on Friday afternoon, they discussed when to negotiate these measures and what proposals they should discuss. After a lengthy debate, which the talks’ chair Harry Conway joked was confusing, governments agreed to hold a week of behind-closed-door talks from 1 September to 4 September and from 23 November to 27 November. Following these meetings, which are intended to negotiate disagreements on the NZF and rival watered-down measures proposed by the US and its allies, there will be public talks from November 30 to December 4. Oct 17, 2025 Politics US-led alliance wins a year’s delay in adoption of green shipping deal The IMO’s Net-Zero Framework will be up for approval again in October 2026, after the US and Saudi Arabia persuaded countries not to vote on it as planned Read more Apr 23, 2026 Energy Prospects for global green shipping deal boosted by US tariff ruling, analysts say While divisions remain over the international shipping’s Net Zero Framework, the US’s main threat may now have been partly neutered Read more Jan 23, 2026 Politics IMO head: Shipping decarbonisation ‘has started’ despite green deal delay Arsenio Dominguez said the shipping industry’s net zero emissions goal is not in dispute although countries have stalled on adopting a framework to reach it Read more Last October, talks intended to adopt the NZF provisionally agreed in April 2025 were derailed by the US and Saudi Arabia, who successfully persuaded a majority of countries to vote to postpone the talks by a year. Those talks, known as an extraordinary session, are now scheduled to resume on Friday December 4 unless governments decide otherwise in the preceding weeks. While this Friday session will be in the same building with the same participants as the rest of the week’s talks, calling it the extraordinary session is significant as it means the NZF can be voted on. Em Fenton, senior director of climate diplomacy at Opportunity Green said that the NZF ‘has survived but survival is not a victory’ and called for it to be adopted later this year ‘in a way that maintains urgency and ambition, and delivers justice and equity for countries on the frontlines of climate impacts’. NZF’s supporters The NZF would penalise the owners of particularly polluting ships and use the revenues to fund cleaner fuels, support affected workers and help developing countries manage the transition. Many governments – particularly in Europe, the Pacific and some Latin American and African nations – spoke in favour of it this week. South Africa said the fund it would create is ‘the key enabler of a just transition’ and its removal would take away predictable revenues from African countries. Vanuatu said that ‘we are not here to sink the ship but to man it’. Australia’s representative called it a ‘carefully balanced compromise’, as it was provisionally agreed by a large majority after years of negotiations, and warned that failing to adopt it would harm the shipping industry by failing to provide certainty. Santa Marta summit kick-starts work on key steps for fossil fuel transition Canada’s negotiator said that if it was weakened to appease its critics like the US and Saudi Arabia, this would disappoint those who think it is too weak already like the Pacific islands. A large group of mainly big developing countries like Nigeria and Indonesia did not rule out supporting the framework but called for adjustments to help developing countries deal with the changes. Nigeria called for developing countries to be given more time to implement the measures, a minimum share of the fund’s revenues and discounts for ships bringing them food and energy. According to analysis from the University of College London’s Energy Institute, the countries speaking in support of the NZF include five countries which voted with the US to postpone talks in October and a further ten countries which did not take a clear position at that time. Most governments support the NZF as the basis for further talks, the institute said. Opposition remains But a small group of mainly oil-producing nations said they are opposed to any financial penalties for particularly polluting ships. They support a proposal submitted by Liberia, Argentina and Panama which has proposed weakening emission targets and ditching any funding mechanism for the framework involving ‘direct revenue collection and disbursement’. Argentina argued that the NZF would harm countries which are far from their export markets and said concerns over that cannot be solved ‘by magic with guidelines’. They added that, as a result, the NZF itself needs to be fundamentally re-negotiated. The UCL Energy Institute said that just 24 countries – less than a quarter of those who spoke – said they supported Argentina’s proposal. While this week’s talks did not see the kind of US threats reported in October, their delegation did leave personalised flyers on every delegate’s desk which were described by academics, negotiators and climate campaigners as misleading. One witness told Climate Home News that junior US delegates arrived early on Wednesday and placed flyers behind governments’ name plates warning each country of the costs they would incur if the NZF is adopted. The figures on a selection of leaflets seen by Climate Home News ranged from $100 million for Panama to $3.5 billion for the Netherlands. ‘They are trying to scare countries away from supporting climate action with one-sided information’, one negotiator told Climate Home News. A flyer left on Pakistan’s desk, shared by a witness with Climate Home News They added that the calculations, by the US State Department’s Office of the Chief Economist, ignore the fact that the money raised would be shared to help poorer countries’ transition as well as ignoring the economic costs of failing to address climate change. Tristan Smith, an academic representing the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, told the meeting that the calculations were ‘opaque’ and flawed as they overstate the contribution of fuel cost to trade costs. A US State Department Spokesperson said in a statement that they ‘firmly stand behind our estimates’ which were shared ‘in good faith’ and to ‘provide an additional tool to policymakers as they contemplate the true economic burden over the NZF’. The post Key green shipping talks to be held in late 2026 appeared first on Climate Home News.