'Enormous amount of work' left to agree details, but backing for IMO GHG levy and fuel standard grows

With five weeks remaining for IMO member states to agree policy measures at April’s 83rd meeting of the Maritime Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), reports from an intensive negotiation session at the organisation’s London headquarters say support is coalescing around a levy on emissions and a global fuel standard for the shipping sector.

University College London (UCL) Energy Institute reported the 18th Intersessional Working Group (ISWG) on GHGs concluded with the pair of mid-term measures for the reduction of maritime emissions achieving broad-based support from countries that participated in the discussions.

“Support for the levy continues to grow, with 66% of Marpol Annex VI signatories. This reflects a diverse coalition that includes key flag states, including backing from African nations, Small Island Developing States, and Least Developed Countries,” UCL Energy Institute research fellow Dr Annika Frosch said. 

IMO will hold another intersessional working group negotiation session before MEPC 83 meets in April 2025, but the UN organisation will need to approve the technical and economic measures that will be included in IMO’s International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (Marpol) to adhere to its own schedule. A revised GHG strategy, adopted in 2023, would see the approved mid-term technical and economic measures adopted by a follow-up MEPC meeting in October 2025. The mid-term measures are designed to enable the shipping industry, as a whole, to reach net-zero GHG emissions around 2050.

Observers of the negotiations noted there remains some way to go before the measures would reach final agreement at IMO. 

“The ISWG-GHG 18 meeting has advanced key elements of the Marpol Annex VI amendment... but significant decisions remain on the economic measures,” UCL doctoral candidate Marie Fricaudet said. 

Environmental NGOs observing the negotiations said "hundreds of details" remain to be resolved within the technical and economic policies under development and "expressed dismay at the lack of action and demanded greater ambition".

"While this week’s deliberations touched on most of these points of disagreement, none that will drive the shipping sector to achieve the goals of the 2023 IMO Strategy were resolved, leaving an enormous amount of work to be done over the next five weeks if countries are to agree upon a final legal policy document that can be approved at MEPC 83," the shipping-focused Clean Shipping Coalition of civil society environmental protection organisations said.  

IMO secretary general Arsenio Dominguez has repeatedly stressed the organisation remains ’on track’ to meet its revised, more ambitious targets.  

UCL’s analysis of the state of negotiations on the measures echoes that view.

"Overall, the process is on track to achieve finalisation in April following further intersessional dialogue between member states, the final ISWG-GHG 19 meeting, and further work done during MEPC 83 itself," the UCL report said.