The U.S. succeeded in blocking a worldwide fee on shipping emissions as a world maritime meeting adjourned Friday without adopting regulations.
The world’s largest maritime nations had been deliberating on adopting regulations to maneuver the shipping industry away from fossil fuels to slash emissions. But U.S. President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia and other countries vowed to fight any global tax on shipping emissions.
The U.S. had threatened to retaliate if nations support it. Trump urged countries to vote “No” on the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London, posting on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday that “america is not going to stand for this global green recent scam tax on shipping.”
In a post on X Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the plan’s failure “one other HUGE win” for Trump, who has called efforts to combat climate change and adopt green technology a “con job” as recently as this 12 months’s United Nations General Assembly.
Rubio had decried the regulations as a “global carbon tax” and threatened sanctions, visa restrictions and other retaliatory measures against countries that supported it.
A spokesperson for Transport Canada told Global News on Thursday that the federal government was supportive of the regulations, but didn’t address concerns about potential U.S. retaliation amid Canada’s trade and security negotiations with the Trump administration.
“As a founding member of the International Maritime Organization, Canada is working with international partners to advance climate motion within the international shipping sector,” spokesperson Hicham Ayoun said in an announcement.
“The Government of Canada has and can proceed to work closely with america on marine shipping.”
The U.S. State Department wouldn’t comment on whether Rubio or other officials has raised the problem with their Canadian counterparts.
More negotiations set for coming 12 months
The IMO is the United Nations agency that regulates international shipping.
Saudi Arabia called for a vote to adjourn the meeting for a 12 months. Greater than half of the countries agreed.
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“Now you have got one 12 months, you’ll proceed to work on several points of those amendments,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary general of the International Maritime Organization, said in his closing remarks. “You could have one 12 months to barter and talk and are available to consensus.”
Ralph Regenvanu, minister for climate change for the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, said the choice is unacceptable, “given the urgency we face in light of accelerating climate change.”
If the green shipping regulations were adopted, it will have been the primary time a worldwide fee was imposed on planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Most ships today run on heavy fuel oil that releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants because it’s burned.
“The delay leaves the shipping sector drifting in uncertainty. But this week has also shown that there’s a clear desire to wash up the shipping industry, even within the face of U.S. bullying,” said Alison Shaw, IMO Manager at Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based environmental nongovernmental organization.
Shipping emissions have grown over the past decade to about 3% of the worldwide total as trade has grown and vessels use immense amounts of fossil fuels to move cargo over long distances. In April, IMO member states agreed on the contents of the regulatory framework, with the aim of adopting the “Net-Zero Framework” at this London meeting.
Adopting the regulations was meant to reveal how effective multilateral cooperation can deliver real progress on global climate goals, said Emma Fenton, senior director for climate diplomacy at a U.K.-based climate change nonprofit, Opportunity Green. Delaying the method risks undermining the framework’s ambitions, they added.
The regulations would set a marine fuel standard that decreases, over time, the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from using shipping fuels. The regulations also would establish a pricing system that may impose fees for each ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above allowable limits, in what’s effectively the primary global tax on greenhouse gas emissions.
The fees had been estimated to generate $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually if adopted. They were to enter an IMO fund to take a position in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries in order that they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships.
The IMO, which regulates international shipping, set a goal for the sector to succeed in net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by about 2050, and has committed to making sure that fuels with zero or near-zero emissions are used more widely.
“What matters now could be that countries stand up and are available back to the IMO with a louder and more confident yes vote that can not be silenced,” said Anaïs Rios, shipping policy officer for Seas At Risk. “The planet and the longer term of shipping doesn’t have time to waste.”
—With additional files from Global News
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