Hope still floats for addressing global shipping pollution

Despite a setback, maritime nations at COP30 aim to cut sector’s fossil fuel use.

- By ANTON L. DELGADO AND JENNIFER McDERMOTT

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times
THE U.S. is one of four nations skipping the climate conference in Brazil. Above, at the Port of Long Beach.

At international climate talks in Belem, Brazil, the head of the International Maritime Organization said he’s continuing to “advocate and campaign” for global regulations to move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels, despite the United States and Saudi Arabia blocking new rules last month.

IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez spoke at one of the first side events at the United Nations climate negotiations this week on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon. The side event discussed the shipping industry’s efforts to slash carbon pollution by cutting back on fossil fuels.

Maritime nations were about to adopt the first global carbon fee on shipping last month at the IMO, the U.N. agency that regulates the international industry. They had already agreed on the regulations in April, so adopting them was widely expected to be a formality.

But after much pressure from U.S. President Trump, along with Saudi Arabia and a handful of other countries, delegates postponed the decision for a year. Trump said then that the U.S. "will not stand for this global green new scam tax on shipping."

Plan to slash emissions postponed