The IMO is a specialized agency of the UN. In April, a majority of member states had already voted in favor of a system for pricing CO2 emissions from ships. The IMO Environment Committee was due to seal the agreement this week. The two-thirds majority required for this was considered achievable, but strong resistance from the USA raised doubts about this.
US President Donald Trump joined the debate on Thursday via his short message service Truth Social: He wrote that he was “outraged” by the vote planned in London. “The United States will NOT tolerate this global green new shipping fraud tax.” Since his return to the White House, Trump has prescribed a U-turn in climate policy for the United States. He describes climate protection as “fraud” and promotes the use of fossil fuels through deregulation.
International shipping emits significant amounts of greenhouse gases, which further fuel climate change. CO2 pricing is intended to ensure that ships are increasingly converted to fuels that are less harmful to the climate. Important countries such as China, Brazil, Great Britain and the EU support the project. Large oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates are against this.
The US took its opposition a step further and last week threatened countries that support the new system with sanctions such as visa restrictions and port fees. Washington also requested a change to the voting procedure that would give more weight to abstentions. The proposal was due to be considered on Friday. If adopted, it could derail the plan’s adoption.
A Russian delegate described the current state of affairs as “chaos” in a speech at the IMO plenary session. The discussions from the previous day lasted until the early hours of the morning. Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the U.N. body that normally relies on consensus among member states, said the manner in which this week’s negotiations “should not be repeated.” Liberia and Saudi Arabia called for Friday’s vote to be postponed.
The Brazilian representative criticized the “methods” of the USA. He hopes “that this will not replace the usual way of making decisions at a global level.” The US pressure could hit “countries that are unfortunately more sensitive to US influence,” a European representative told AFP.
The Philippines, which has the world’s largest contingent of shipping workers, and the Caribbean islands, which are economically dependent on US cruise tourists, are considered weak candidates. Argentina, whose President Xavier Milei is considered a Trump ally and to which the USA has promised a billion-dollar aid package, wants to vote against the agreement.
The rules agreed in advance in April should take effect from 2027. They affect large ships with more than 5,000 tons of cargo capacity, which, according to the IMO, cause 85 percent of the total CO2 emissions from international shipping. This in turn is responsible for almost three percent of all global greenhouse gases.
