The world’s first global carbon price back on the negotiating table at the UN in International Shipping News 17/04/2026 Governments are resuming negotiations at the UN on the Net-Zero Framework (NZF) for international shipping, a landmark climate agreement introducing the world’s first global carbon price on any polluter. The talks take place at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London as a two-part summit: technical working group talks (ISWG-GHG-21) on 20 – 24 April, and the 84th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC84) on 27 April – 1 May. The summit is happening against the backdrop of disruptions in oil flows and shipping bunker fuels costs doubling due to the conflict in the Middle East, exposing how dependent global shipping is on volatile fossil fuels. Why this matters: The IMO April meeting is a big test whether countries can unite against the US and other largely oil-producing states to defend the NZF and adopt it as it is later this year, in order to help reduce shipping’s reliance on fossil fuels and cut shipping fuel costs long-term. Technical discussions in the first week of the summit (ISWG-GHG-21) are planned to focus on ironing out key policy details in the Framework’s guidelines that are still to be decided, including clean energy and how to spend the estimated $10-12bn/year worth of revenues generated through the NZF’s carbon pricing (e.g. penalty fees for emissions above a certain limit). A big focus that week will be on the role of biofuels in shipping’s clean transition, with some countries pushing for an expansion into cheap food- and crop-based biofuels which experts and campaigners warn come with serious environmental and climate hazards. Political discussions in the second week (MEPC84) are set to debate the future of the Framework: whether it remains in its current form or is re-opened for substantial changes in its architecture. This concerns removing the carbon price and/or weakening the agreed limits to phase-out fossil fuels. The EU, the UK, Brazil, China, Norway, Mexico, Kenya, DRC, Ghana, Togo and Pacific Island states broadly back the NZF as it is, including its revenue-raising ability through the carbon price. They see it as critical to making the NZF work and an opportunity to make the shipping sector more fair. Japan is suggesting to scrap the carbon price as a compromise, but this is likely to antagonise vulnerable countries who would lose access to critical finance. A group of largely oil producing countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, Argentina want the carbon pricing element out, while also pushing to weaken agreed limits on carbon intensity in fuels which would prolong the use of fossil fuels. The US rejects the NZF altogether. The latest analysis by UCL warns that removing the revenue-raising ability of the NZF ensured by a carbon price would have serious negative impacts on the sector’s energy transition, and increase the vulnerability of developing countries to economic shocks. This is because the lack of a carbon price would mean increased fuel price volatility, slower adoption of clean energy, and lack of revenues for a just and equitable transition. A study funded by container shipping giant CMA-CGM also found that decarbonising shipping under the NZF would ultimately be cheaper than the cost of inaction. In 2023, the IMO member states agreed that meeting the sector’s climate commitments will require a carbon price (an economic measure) as well