The European Commission has called for EU to stay united as some of its member states joined a US-led alliance opposed to a net-zero agreement.

Greece is joining Saudi Arabia and the US in negotiations within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Last week the Greek minister of environment and energy Stavros Papastavrou met with his Saudi Arabia counterpart, prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, at the conclusion of his visit to Riyadh.

The discussion referred to the cooperation between Greece, the United States, and Saudi Arabia within the framework of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the common position regarding the Net-Zero Framework (NZF) in shipping, which has already borne fruit.

Greece and Saudi Arabia have agreed to cooperate through their respective ministries – shipping and energy – towards submitting a joint proposal on this issue, before the expiry of the new deadline for the adoption of the relevant framework.

It is recalled that last October the IMO decided to postpone the decision to adopt the NZF for one year.

For his part, Mr. Papastavrou emphasized that Greece is “a voice of realism in Europe, when it comes to energy.”

The pushback from certain member states has cast doubt on whether the framework can gain the support needed to move forward, leaving the global shipping sector watching closely.

On Friday, a European Commission spokesperson was asked about the Greek government’s decision to break from the EU line on the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework and instead submit a joint proposal together with Saudi Arabia.

“We continue to stand firmly behind the shared objective of putting global shipping on the net-zero emission path towards 2050,” a European Commission spokesperson said on Friday, January 16.

“We are obviously ready to build bridges and to work with other partners to enable the adoption -when the discussion resumes at the International Maritime Organization Marine Environmental Protection Committee, and it’s very important that all EU Member States stay united in our shared International Maritime Organization goals,” the official added. “So to that end, we are looking into the news, and we are in contact with all the Member States and with the relevant authorities.”

A fierce Trump administration push to stop the global shipping industry from paying for its own climate pollution appeared to have been successful, as efforts to approve the “world’s first global carbon tax” collapsed.

It had been widely assumed the tax would be adopted in October 2025 during the extraordinary session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee in London at the International Maritime Organization.

But after four days of tough negotiations, countries agreed to delay a vote on whether to approve it by 12 months. The delay follows pressure and procedural tactics from the United States and other countries, pushing the adoption vote to October 2026.

The US president Donald Trump voiced its stance against the first of its kind global carbon tax, warning IMO member states to vote against the organization’s Net-Zero Framework aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from the international shipping sector.

The United States threatened to use visa restrictions, commercial penalties, additional port fees on ships owned, operated, or flagged by countries supporting the framework and sanctions on officials to retaliate against nations that back IMO’s proposed carbon tax. The envisaged measures included potentially blocking vessels registered in those countries from U.S. ports.

Greece, one of the world’s leading shipping nations, took a cautious stance on the proposed International Maritime Organization (IMO) carbon tax.

In this context, the Greek minister of maritime affairs and insular policy, Vasilis Kikilias, in an official statement, underlined that “shipping needs international, fair and realistic rules, accepted by all member states, and not punitive mechanisms that will endanger the stability of global trade.”

The minister emphasized that “we agree on the framework, but we want realism. LNG has proven its reliability and must be utilized as a transitional fuel. We still do not have zero or near-zero emission fuels, not even to approach the reduction targets of the coming decade. The cost of the transition is very high, and a significant part of it must return to the shipping industry and the corresponding infrastructures.”

Some Greek shipowners, big names in the world shipping, long regarded as the industry’s traditionalists, publicly denounced the framework, calling it “unrealistic” and “detached from the commercial realities of global trade.”

While Greek shipowners are investing in cleaner technologies, they remain wary of regulatory measures that could disrupt business models.

The Union of Greek Shipowners see the delay to reach an agreement on its Net-Zero Framework and the postponement of the decision as a “new opportunity to shape a sustainable and effective international framework that will guide global shipping safely and realistically through the green transition.”

Athens, while acknowledging the agreement’s flaws, it says “is ready to lead constructively, with evidence-based and unifying proposals, in a global effort to shape a fair, practical and enforceable clean plan, where all stakeholders assume their share of responsibility on the collective path toward the green transition.”

“The lack of consensus highlighted deep rifts over the proposed Net-Zero Framework regulation, where the positions advanced by the shipping industry were not sufficiently taken into account,” the Union of Greek Shipowners said in its statement.

On the other hand, the delay on the adoption of the Net-Zero Framework, is characterized by environmental groups as a “major setback” for global efforts to clean up shipping industry emissions.

As they say, governments will now have to spend the next months rallying every nation that supports the framework, and convincing those who are on the fence, or opposing, that its adoption is the “only sane way forward.”

Industry bodies were equally alarmed. In a joint statement, seven associations – Japanese Shipowners’ Association, Royal Belgian Shipowners’ Association, Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners, Singapore Shipping Association, UK Chamber of Shipping, Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, and Danish Shipping – warned that failure to adopt the NZF would leave the industry facing a complicated and inefficient patchwork of national and regional regulatory frameworks.

“Binding global regulation is essential for achieving the goal of climate neutral shipping in 2050. We need global regulation and a level playing field. The alternative to the Net-Zero Framework is not zero regulation, as some of the opponents of the agreement may wish for, but rather a complicated  patchwork of regional and national regulations, which is entirely the wrong answer for a global industry,” said Anne H. Steffensen, CEO of the trade and employers’ organisation Danish Shipping.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and European Shipowners (ES | ECSA) also issued, among other leading associations and organizations, declarations of support for the Net-Zero Framework.