57 member countries of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) voted for a one-year delay of the ‘Net Zero Frame’ (NZF), 49 voted against, 21 abstained. Therefore, the implementation of the Net Zero Frame initiative is postponed for one year to be taken up again in October 2026, enough time for the detractors of measures to stop climate change to derail the NZF. And let’s not forget that a year ago the initiative was approved unanimously and now it was about confirming it.
Who voted in favor of the delay? Of course, the USA, which led the initiative. Already Trump, on his social network, described the NZF initiative as “a new bureaucratic green scam” (a ‘green new scam brureaucracy’) and also called it “green pipe dreams”, as well as a threat to American consumers. Nothing he hadn’t already warned about; but it must be added that among the countries that joined him in the vote in favor of the delay are Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates…, all of them producers of fossil fuels- oil, natural gas and others like Liberia or Panama which host the flags of convenience with the largest number of registered ships
Cyprus and Malta, along with Greece, abstained even though these last three are members of the EU, the vast majority of whose states did vote against the delay and the European Commission itself has a policy firmly in favor of measures aimed at protecting the marine environment (ETS, FuelEUmaritime).
The industry sector clearly expressed disappointment and indignation in some cases: The European Community Shipping Association (ECSA), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the Global Maritime Forum, the Clean Shipping Coalition, Danish Shipping… and naturally a whole array of NGOs.
The problem now arises with the delay: what is approved in October 2026 could not be implemented until 2027 at the earliest and its effects would hardly be felt by 2030. Without forgetting that the investments that should be made to adapt to the NFZ measures are now in doubt: shipowners as we indicated, ports as the International Association of Ports (IAPH) has made public, investors in the production of new non-polluting fuels, will now be in limbo for at least a year, with the risk of seeing their plans and their investments in ammonia and methanol, for example, seriously harmed
“A great victory,” according to the USA
The NZF, as it stands, is the result of three years of discussions by the national delegates of the IMO member countries and is the only global regulation for greenhouse gas reduction measures that aims precisely to avoid fragmented national regulation. What should have been a clear path to climate action has been marred by politics, emotion, and division. Now, and depending on what happens in October 2026, it could happen that a universal rule becomes ineffective and it will be a number of nationally managed legislations, not managed in common, that dictate how ships must manage their emissions depending on the country and port they call at. There would be no ‘standard fuel’, with all its consequences. A real disaster if that were the case.
Confrontation, absence of cooperation… future?: relations based on rules or simply on power. Power to impose sanctions on third parties who do not accept their vision. New consensus in a year or fragmentation of opinion in the IMO, with its consequences?
