A fierce Trump administration push to stop the global shipping industry from paying for its own climate pollution appeared to have been successful Friday, as efforts to approve the “world’s first global carbon tax” collapsed.
It had been widely assumed the tax would be adopted during a summit in London at the International Maritime Organization, the UN-backed body that governs global shipping. But after four days of fraught negotiations, countries agreed to delay a vote on whether to approve it by 12 months.
The decision came after a vociferous US campaign, with President Donald Trump calling it a “scam tax” and the State Department threatening reprisals on countries supporting it.
Experts say the collapse of the talks marks not only a significant blow for attempts to clean up a heavily climate-polluting industry, undermining decades of negotiations, but also represents yet another failure of climate diplomacy.
IMO member states agreed in 2023 that the shipping industry would reach net zero emissions — removing as much planet-heating gas from the atmosphere as it emits — by around 2050.
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