Even as the IMO Net Zero Framework is postponed, the work for cleaner shipping must continue

The Net Zero Framework would have been an important step in creating legally binding regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector. But due to lobbying form the US and Saudi Arabia, this crucial framework was postponed for one year. Even if we’ll have to wait for the Net Zero Framework, there are other measures we can take to slow global warming in the Arctic.

On October 15-17, 2025, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) held a special meeting of its Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC 83), to adopt the Net Zero Framework (NZF) on decarbonizing the global shipping sector.  A much-anticipated landmark deal, the NZF adoption would culminate the years of hard work by the IMO Secretariat, 176 member states, the shipping industry, the scientific community, and NGOs, to establish legally binding regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships globally. 

The NZF was largely supported by governments and industry for the prospects of establishing, besides concrete carbon reduction targets to be achieved by 2050, a level playing field and global regulatory certainty – the essential enabling conditions for making long terms investments in producing clean fuels and building capacity and supporting infrastructure. 

The great momentum was interrupted, as the US and Saudi Arabia succeeded in derailing the final adoption by aggressively lobbying and twisting other governments’ hands, not to vote in favour. In the dramatic conclusion of the meeting, the vote on IMO NZF was postponed for one year.  

It is an understatement to say that many felt disappointed of this outcome. The Arctic region would directly benefit from this global regulation, and not only because of reducing its regional share in shipping emissions, but also because the transitioning to clean fuels would imply significant reductions in the levels of black carbon pollution particularly detrimental to Arctic marine and coastal environments and peoples. 

Looking beyond the Net Zero Framework: other measures to protect nature

It feels like a lot of work has been lost just in one session. But there is a silver lining in this regulatory storm. The IMO decarbonization package already includes immediate short-term measures that came into effect earlier, in 2023: the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) and Energy Efficiency Index measures. Among them are slow steaming, voyage planning and route optimization, hybrid technologies, energy conservation, ship design improvements, wind assisted propulsion, and other measures. The introduction of the Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) – the key ingredient in the delayed Net Zero Framework – would assist in pushing energy efficiency measures forward, especially the Carbon Intensity Indicator. Yet the delay in CFS does not mean that the CII cannot go forward.  The work for cleaner shipping has already begun, and the momentum is building. 

For the Arctic, the delay in the adoption of the IMO decarbonization framework means that the regional-level regulation on reducing black carbon emissions should be considered as soon as possible.   

Black carbon is one of the longest, unresolved issues running at the IMO. A powerful super-pollutant, black carbon is particularly detrimental for Arctic environments as it settles on snow and ice, accelerating dangerous melting. Cutting black carbon emissions from shipping will result in immediate climate benefits that slow warming in the Arctic and improve public health. 

The next opportunity comes in February 2026, when the IMO’s Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response will meet (PPR 13) to discuss polar fuels. The deadline for submitting proposals is in December. In the aftermath of the IMO’s delaying the vote on adoption of the Net Zero Framework, we encourage Arctic states to submit concrete proposals on polar fuels that will ensure a reduction in Arctic and near-Arctic black carbon emissions.