IMO Urged to Give Shipping Clear Investment Signal on Net Zero Pathway

The Getting to Zero Coalition is calling on International Maritime Organization member states to preserve a strong and predictable Net-Zero Framework as negotiations over shipping’s global emissions rules head into their final stretch.

The coalition said this week that the IMO’s latest round of technical talks showed governments are still searching for common ground, but warned that the final agreement must give shipowners, fuel producers and other investors enough certainty to commit capital to zero-emission technologies.

The appeal follows the 22nd session of the IMO’s Intersessional Working Group on greenhouse gas emissions, where delegates revisited the Net-Zero Framework and debated possible changes to its fuel-intensity targets, compliance system, financial rewards and governance of the proposed IMO fund.

Those talks left the basic framework largely intact, despite efforts by the United States, Liberia, Saudi Arabia and other countries to weaken or replace key elements, including its carbon-pricing mechanism.

The Getting to Zero Coalition said the focus now should be on producing a global system that avoids regulatory fragmentation while giving companies a clear investment signal.

“In the coming years, thousands of new vessels will be ordered, locking in investment decisions that will shape the transition well beyond the next decade,” the coalition said.

That makes the next several years especially important for companies considering early investments in zero-emission fuels, engines and related infrastructure.

The coalition said first movers will need ambitious and fixed emissions targets, a stable credit market and predictable financial rewards to help offset the higher cost and risk of technologies that have yet to reach commercial scale.

Without that certainty, it warned, shipowners could gravitate toward fuels that are available today but may offer less potential for long-term decarbonization.

The group is also pressing governments to make sure the transition works for developing and trade-dependent economies, where concerns about higher transport costs have become one of the biggest sources of opposition to the IMO plan.

It said targeted support for lower-income countries should remain part of the framework, both to address disproportionate impacts and to help create investment opportunities across a wider range of markets.

The debate over costs and revenue distribution remains central to the negotiations.

Under the framework agreed in principle last year, ships would face increasingly stringent limits on the greenhouse gas intensity of their fuels, while a financial mechanism would charge higher-emitting vessels and reward cleaner energy use.

The system is expected to generate roughly $10 billion to $15 billion annually, making the distribution of those revenues one of the most politically sensitive issues still unresolved.

At last week’s IMO talks, 38 countries that spoke explicitly supported retaining carbon pricing and the revenue mechanism at the center of the framework, while 17 countries, largely oil-producing states, opposed it over concerns about costs.

The Getting to Zero Coalition said the final agreement should remain ambitious enough to encourage investment while providing enough predictability for companies making decisions on ships and fuel infrastructure with operating lives measured in decades.

“The objective should remain clear: a high-ambition, predictable framework that enables the industry to invest early, drives a cost-effective transition, supports first movers, and creates the conditions for long-term, zero-emission fuels and technologies to reach scale in time,” the coalition said.

The IMO will hold another technical working group meeting November 23-27, followed by the Marine Environment Protection Committee’s MEPC 85 session from November 30 through December 3.

The Net-Zero Framework is then expected to return for possible adoption at an extraordinary MEPC session on December 4.

For the Getting to Zero Coalition, the argument heading into those meetings is straightforward: after years of negotiation, the industry now needs rules that are not only politically acceptable, but strong and stable enough to actually unlock investment.

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