London talks raise hopes for a green shipping deal

Four days of closed-door negotiations in London have raised hopes for an ambitious deal to cut the shipping industry's emissions, which account for about 3% of the global total, Climate Home News reports.

The talks, overseen by the International Maritime Organization, aim to revive a "Net-Zero Framework" that governments provisionally agreed in April 2025 — a system of emissions targets for shipowners backed by financial rewards and fees. The US convinced a majority of nations to delay adopting it last October after threatening sanctions and visa restrictions.

An analysis by University College London found 38 countries at last week's talks favoured an ambitious framework versus 17 opposed, with opposition concentrated among fossil-fuel-aligned states including the US, Russia and several Gulf nations. Supporters include China, Brazil, Türkiye, Canada, Australia and most of Europe.

Observers expect the framework to be adopted with modifications rather than scrapped outright, though analysis from the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology found even the current, most ambitious version on the table would fall short of the industry's own emissions targets. Further negotiating rounds are scheduled for late November and early December, with a potentially final vote in December.

Reporting by Joe Lo for Climate Home News. Source: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/09/07/london-talks-raise-hopes-of-green-shipping-deal/