The work of the Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships (ISWG-GHG), the intersessional working group of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from shipping, concluded today without a definitive agreement on the Net-Zero Framework (NZF), the global regulatory framework that should introduce, first of all, case in the world for an international sector, a mechanism of carbon pricing applied to maritime transport. The framework NZF had been provisionally approved in April 2025 in Conclusion of the 83rd session of the Marine Environment IMO Protection Committee ( of the 11th April 2025), but its formal adoption had already been postponed a few months later at the end of a very hard-fought vote ( of 17 October 2025), in a climate of strong pressure from Member States United States and Saudi Arabia, the same countries indicated today by some sources as the main obstacles to the progress of the negotiations.

As approved during MEPC 83, the NZF includes a Global Fuel Standard (GFS) which requires shipowners to reduce progressive greenhouse gas intensity of fuels naval vehicles used, under penalty of economic sanctions, as well as a mechanism of price on part of the emissions designed to generate an incentive financial strategy directed towards decarbonisation. The underlying objective remains the one set by the IMO Strategy 2023: net zero emissions greenhouse gases from international shipping by 2050, with intermediate targets of reduction of 30% by 2030 and 80%.

At the heart of this week's technical discussion was above all the carbon pricing and redistribution mechanism of revenues projected by the framework. Thirty-eight countries expressed support explicit to these provisions, while 17 countries, mostly oil producers, opposed citing concerns for the economic costs of the mechanism. For supporters, give a maritime emissions is the indispensable lever for orient the sector towards more sustainable fuels and technologies clean economy, as well as a tool to protect economies in the process of economic effects of the transition, as well as to avoid the proliferation of national and regional regulations autonomous measures - measures already in force in the European Union, in United Kingdom and some African countries - with the danger of generating a regulatory mosaic that would increase uncertainty, delay the investments and would increase compliance costs for shipping companies that operate in multiple jurisdictions.

Transport & Environment (T&E), a non- that promotes the decarbonisation of transport, has denounced the stalemate, being that of this This week in London the third consecutive meeting without result concrete, with the efforts of the United States and Saudi Arabia that - according to the NGO - have been instrumental in blocking progress. T&E found that if "pragmatic" negotiators how the European Union has expressed its willingness to agree on compromise measures, including the renunciation of the creation of of a centralised fund or to mitigate gas targets Serra, the US and Saudi delegations would have maintained rigid positions.

"After a summer of heat waves, drought and record sea temperatures - highlighted Alex Springer, Interim Director of the Maritime Sector at T&E - the failure of states to move closer to a credible agreement has been deeply disappointing. This places world shipping always more off course than the objectives it should achieve. Governments - said Springer, foreshadowing that regulatory mosaic that several supporters of the NZF framework would like to avoid - should promote regional measures ambitious and not wait for a global agreement before acting."

Lukas Leppert, president of the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC), the international coalition of non-governmental organisations government's environmentalists, while it welcomed the broad support Member States to the IMO regulatory framework, however, criticised attempts by a minority of countries to introduce "alternative proposals" aimed - he said - not at improve the agreement but reduce its ambition. "The proposals alternatives to the Net-Zero Framework - Leppert underlined - do not are neither necessary nor useful: the IMO has already committed to a strategy, approved a regulatory framework in able to implement it and has planned its adoption for the end of the of the year. Although not entirely in line with the levels of ambition of the 2023 IMO Strategy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the NZF is a compromise that is the result of lengthy negotiations that brings together a multitude of interests and positions and is supported by a large majority. We consider the NZF to be an important step forward, on which we can build to become more progressives in the future."

IMO to resume technical negotiations on the NZF from 23 to 23 November 27 before the painting is presented at the 85th Scheduled session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee from 30 November to 3 December. It is also scheduled for next 4 December: an extraordinary session of the MEPC dedicated to the examination formal adoption of the framework.