Nations issue joint submission to IMO for carbon levy

The joint text is supported by major shipping nations such as Greece, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom, the world’s largest flag States including Bahamas, Liberia, Marshall Islands and Panama, all EU States (and the European Commission), other African countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, plus Small Island Developing States from the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The joint submission by governments sets out convergent regulatory text for amendments to the IMO MARPOL Convention, which will require shipping companies operating ships on international voyages to make GHG contributions per tonne of CO₂e emitted to a new “IMO GHG Strategy Implementation Fund”.

The key purpose of this mandatory GHG charge will be to reduce the cost gap between zero/near-zero GHG emission (ZNZ) fuels (such as green methanol, ammonia and hydrogen) and conventional marine fuels, to incentivise the accelerated uptake of green energy sources.

Revenue generated will be used to reward the production and uptake of ZNZ fuels, whilst also providing billions of US dollars annually to support the maritime GHG reduction efforts of developing countries.

This mature regulatory proposal will be considered by a critical IMO meeting in February (in the week of 17 February 2025 at ISWG-GHG 18). If the MARPOL amendments are approved by IMO in April 2025, they should enter into force globally in early 2027, with the collection of annual GHG contributions from ships commencing in 2028.

While a large number of governments now support a universal flat rate GHG contribution by ships – or something similar – a minority of governments continue to have concerns. Working in co-operation with all IMO Member States we will do our best to allay such concerns during the final stages of these critical negotiations about regulatory text.

… commented Guy Platten, Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping 

The joint proposal to IMO for a maritime GHG emissions pricing mechanism can be found here.