Posted on: 11 April 2025
The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) met for its 83rd session in person at IMO Headquarters in London (with remote participation enabled) from 7 to 11 April 2025. The Committee finalised and approved the draft legal text for the ‘IMO Net-Zero Framework’, to be included as a new chapter in Annex VI to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).
Following the IMO’s decision to charge ships at least $100 per tonne of CO₂ emitted above a set decarbonisation target – despite US threats of retaliation.
Rico Luman, Senior Sector Economist, Transport and Logistics at ING, on the impact: “The IMO agreement exceeds expectations in terms of willingness to cooperate and adopt global financial incentives. From an economic point of view, carbon taxing is the most inefficient solution to level the playing field, but it is eventually inevitable.
“However, in this compromise, the vast majority of shipping emissions (between the upper and lower boundaries) will be exempted from taxing, which limits the system’s strength. Outperformers will be rewarded, but details still need to be clarified.
A weakening aspect is the ambition of the boundaries, which have been set at -8% and -21% for 2030 compared to 2008 levels. This is less ambitious than the 30% the IMO currently strives for.
“The IMO seems to be (low carbon) fuel neutral in this regard. This means that the cheaper and easiest-to-use biofuel option will often be preferred. Consequently, the uptake of alternative fuels like methanol or ammonia won’t be much easier.”
