The international maritime regulator has established new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from global shipping practices and agreed on the penalties for those missing the set objectives.
Governments of the member states of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a UN agency responsible for regulating shipping around the world, have agreed on yearly targets to cut emissions from 2028 to 2035, with monetary penalties in place for ships that don’t meet these goals.
After a week of active discussions, the regulator with 175 member states that sets global standards for ship safety and pollution control approved a new fuel standard for ships and a global pricing mechanism for maritime emissions.
According to the new rules, ships must cut emissions intensity by 30% by 2035 and 65% by 2040, compared to 2008 levels. The agency also decided that ships that won’t meet the 2035 target must pay $380 per tonne of CO₂ into a Net Zero Fund.
The fund, yet to be established, will help make shipping more sustainable and support developing countries. It will collect money from emission charges to redirect it towards rewarding ships that produce fewer emissions; helping developing countries with research, new technology, and cleaner infrastructure; paying for training and sharing technology to support the IMO’s climate goals; and supporting vulnerable countries like Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.
On top of the base rules mentioned above, the participant governments also introduced an additional, tougher goal of a 43% reduction by 2035. These compliance targets are harder to meet, so ships missing them can mitigate by purchasing cheaper remedial credits at $100 per tonne, buying credits from other ships that exceeded targets, or using their own surplus credits from earlier years.
These rules, expected to be officially adopted in October 2025 and take effect in 2027, will be mandatory for large ocean-going vessels over 5,000 gross tonnage, which are responsible for 85% of CO2 emissions from international shipping.
The initiative is an important step towards establishing a legally binding system aiming to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships worldwide, with the goal of reaching net-zero emissions by around 2050. The IMO Net-Zero Framework is the first global plan to apply both required emissions limits and carbon pricing to an entire industry sector.
The IMO Net-Zero Framework will be added as Chapter 5 to Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention, which deals with reducing air pollution from ships. The given annex already includes rules for improving ship energy efficiency. It currently has 108 member countries, covering 97% of the world’s merchant ships by tonnage.
The aim is to meet the climate goals set in the IMO’s 2023 strategy, speed up the use of low- and zero-emission fuels and technologies, and ensure a fair transition for all countries. A “zero or near-zero” fuel must emit less than 19 grams of CO₂ per megajoule. By 2035, this limit drops to 14 grams.
According to the draft rules, ships must gradually lower the greenhouse gases they emit for each unit of energy they use. This will be measured from fuel production to use, known as a “well-to-wake” approach. Ships that go over the allowed limits will need to buy credits to make up for the extra emissions. Ships using clean technologies could receive financial rewards.
While approving the new plan, 63 countries voted for the deal, about 25 abstained from the voting, while 16 members opposed it. The latter were mostly fossil fuel producers, whose economies rely on oil and gas, which currently power ships, like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran.
The representatives of some island nations abstained from the vote, criticising it for not being ambitious enough to meet climate goals. However, supporters see it as an important step toward cleaner shipping.
The latest data shows that global shipping produces about 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually. This amount may account for less than 3% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has slightly grown in recent years. Thus, in 2022, there were an estimated 858 million tonnes of carbon emissions globally from the shipping industry, more than 739 million tonnes produced by air transport (domestic and international flights).
CO₂ emissions come from both international and domestic shipping, but the majority is produced by international maritime transport used for global trade.
To deliver on the new sustainability promises, shipping companies may consider using innovative technology to disrupt the legacy maritime transport routines. For instance, Amphitrite, a French startup powered by NVIDIA, leverages AI and satellite data technology to help ships reduce travel time, fuel use, and emissions by predicting ocean currents and simulating different weather conditions.
