57 to 49. On October 17, 2025, member states at the International Maritime Organization voted by that margin to adjourn for a year rather than adopt. The year is up.
October 2026 was supposed to bring the IMO Net-Zero Framework back to the table. Instead, the month passed without any decision, and the IMO meeting schedule now points elsewhere: the resumed second extraordinary session is set for December 4, 2026, subject to confirmation by MEPC 85 meeting the same week. A vote originally due in October 2025 has rolled over again.
April 2025: the draft was finished long ago
MEPC 83 approved draft amendments to MARPOL Annex VI adding a new Chapter 5: a global fuel standard that measures the greenhouse gas intensity of each unit of energy on a well-to-wake basis (GFI), plus a pricing mechanism. It covers ships of 5,000 gross tonnage and above, which account for more than 85 percent of international shipping’s CO2. The reference value is 93.3 grams of CO2-equivalent per megajoule, the 2008 industry average. For 2028 the draft sets two targets at 4 and 17 percent below that baseline, 8 and 21 percent for 2030, and 30 and 43 percent for 2035. Ships between the two targets buy Tier 1 remedial units; the gap above the base target costs Tier 2, priced at US$100 and US$380 per tonne of CO2e for 2028-2030, with revenue flowing into the IMO Net-Zero Fund.
October 2025: 57 votes press pause
The text did not pass. Fifty-seven member states voted to adjourn for a year and 49 voted to continue. The procedural consequence is concrete: the amendments never entered the tacit-acceptance period, so the clock towards entry into force never started.
2026: two meetings, no consensus
MEPC 84, held April 27 to May 1, did not schedule a vote. It set up an intersessional working group and let member states submit amendments to the approved draft. ISWG-GHG 22, meeting September 1-4, likewise ended without final agreement and carried the implementation guidelines into November. Most speakers backed carbon pricing and a central fund; opponents are chiefly oil-producing states. But speaking counts are not votes, and nobody is guaranteeing the December outcome.
December 4: a two-thirds threshold
Under Article 16 of MARPOL, amendments need a two-thirds majority of Parties present and voting. If the framework is adopted on December 4, the roughly 16-month tacit-acceptance procedure puts entry into force no earlier than around spring 2028, and both the first compliance year and the price tiers could still change before adoption.
One vote, two clocks
The carbon clock has slowed, but the clocks for pollutants and regional rules have not. The EU ETS has been billing 100 percent of in-scope emissions on Europe-related voyages since 2026, and FuelEU requires a 2 percent cut in energy GHG intensity from 2025; MEPC 84 also adopted the North-East Atlantic Emission Control Area, which enters into force on September 1, 2027, with the 0.10 percent sulphur limit applying twelve months later. For harbour craft, auxiliary engines and gensets working port areas, sulphur and particulates are a present-tense bill: rather than waiting on an unadopted text, operators can audit their current emissions first. Equipment such as the AIFILTECH dry-type genset black smoke purifier, with washable metal filter cartridges, and the high-temperature-resistant AIFILTECH metal exhaust gas purifier lines are built for in-service retrofit work. December 4 is worth watching; equipment plans should not wait on it.
