From Opinions Desk

By Mark Lutes, WWF Senior Advisor, Global Climate Policy

There is a chance for a breakthrough this year that could decarbonise an entire economic sector. At the same time it may greatly accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels.

What the IMO Agreed

In July 2023 the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) unanimously adopted its revised Net Zero Strategy to cut emissions from the global shipping sector. It sets a goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by around 2050 as well as interim checkpoints for 2030 and 2040. Crucially, it gave negotiators a 2025 deadline to deliver a binding package: a fuel standard plus an economic measure or carbon pricing mechanism.

In April 2025, IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) agreed on the Net Zero Framework (NZF), based on a global fuel standard backed by carbon pricing. Together, these two elements of the legally binding Framework are designed to work together to drive ship fuel emissions down, year by year, to net zero emissions by 2050.

The carbon price would also raise revenue for a new IMO managed fund. The money is intended to ensure a just transition, especially for countries disproportionately affected by rising transport costs, and to speed up the production and use of zero and near zero emission fuels, essential to achieving the goals of the framework.

How Political Winds Shifted

In April 2025, the NZF had strong support from many countries. IMO rules required a six-month notice period before formal adoption as a legally binding global agreement. By October 2025, the momentum had retreated. The extraordinary session froze the adoption decision by one year, after a concerted pressure campaign by a small number of major oil producing countries. But at the same time, some governments and stakeholders raised legitimate concerns: key details of the NZF still needed work, especially the management and allocation of the substantial funds to be generated.

Three Decisions that Must Land This Year

IMO negotiators now have three primary tasks this year –

1. Advance work on the governance of the new Fund and how carbon price revenue will be allocated. This includes how the rewards for zero and near zero emissions fuels will work, and how money will support a fair and just transition.

2. Set the rules for measuring the full climate impact of fuels (life cycle assessment – LCA) from production to storage and use on board (often called “well to wake”). That includes how fuels are made, moved, stored, supplied to ships (bunkered) and burned in engines, including the default emissions values for each fuel and production pathways.

3. Formally adopt the amendments needed to make the Net Zero Framework binding (in MARPOL Annex VI, the main shipping pollution rules). Use the IMO’s usual “tacit acceptance” procedure so the rules can start on time. If the adoption goes to a vote, it will need a two thirds majority of countries present and voting that have ratified MARPOL Annex VI.

The best window to progress the first two is the Intersessional Working Group on Greenhouse Gas (20 – 24 April), followed immediately by MEPC84 (27th April – 27th to 1st May).

Two Chances to Shore up Support

There are two important meetings during April that should also be used to build support for the shipping NZF –

The annual Petersberg Climate Dialogue will be held on 21st-22nd April with a focus on the UNFCCC negotiations. It should also help build momentum towards adoption of the Net Zero Framework. And the First Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels will be held in Santa Marta, Colombia at the same time as the MEPC84. The shipping Net Zero Framework is the first attempt to essentially transition and entire global sector away from fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, so the Santa Marta Conference should support adoption of the NZF.

Courage, not Caution

History doesn’t move on speeches – it moves on actions and decisions. In the next IMO sessions, the ambitious majority of states can either prepare a credible Net Zero Framework to be adopted into law, or let it slip – quietly, fatally – back into the long grass of “later.” The ships will keep sailing; emissions will keep rising; costs of climate impacts will keep landing on the countries least responsible. So let this be the time the IMO chooses courage over caution: adopt the Framework, fund the transition, and make zero-emissions shipping the new normal.