Published: September 24, 2026
NEW YORK – Liberia is lobbying governments to remove the carbon price and global fund from the International Maritime Organization’s net-zero shipping rules before they reconsider adoption. The Liberian team argues that the framework, in its current form, would raise the cost of food, fertilizer, and exports for developing countries that trade with distant markets.
Liberian maritime officials made the case Wednesday at a side event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, alongside Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti. They presented an alternative co-sponsored by Panama, which the team calls a pragmatic and performance-based path to the IMO’s goal of net-zero emissions from shipping by 2050.
“The issue that we want to address today is not whether we support climate ambition. It is rather whether the IMO proposed measures are fair, practical and connected to real emissions reductions,” said Cllr. Margaret C. Ansumana, deputy commissioner of the Liberia Maritime Authority, who introduced the proposal.
The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee approved the Net-Zero Framework in April 2025. It would require large ships to meet annual fuel-intensity targets or cover excess emissions with credits bought from other ships or payments into a new IMO Net-Zero Fund. An extraordinary session convened to adopt it in October 2025 instead voted 57 to 49 to adjourn for one year, with 21 abstentions. Reports put adoption later this year, around October or November.
Liberia’s plan would keep a global fuel standard but tie it to fuels that are commercially viable, meaning available, affordable and scalable across all regions, rather than setting it on climate ambition alone. The standard would be reviewed every five years against emissions progress, the impact on developing economies and the maturity of clean fuels.
Ships that beat the standard would earn surplus units they could transfer within a fleet to vessels that fall short. Ships on routes where clean fuel is not available could also earn units for verified energy-efficiency measures, such as slowing down to burn less fuel.
The proposal removes the penalty payments that ships unable to find compliant fuel or surplus units would owe under the current framework. A member of the Liberian technical team, Ms. Grace Nuhn said charging ships for a fuel they cannot get amounts to letting them pay and keep polluting.
“It’s like you’re telling someone that depends on rice to stop eating rice, and the alternative you are providing is not available to them,” said Ms. Nuhn, a technical presenter on the Liberian team. “Rules are made to help people.”
The Liberian team argued that shipowners would not absorb compliance costs and would pass them to consumers. They said countries that import food and fertilizer and export raw materials over long distances would pay the most.
The deputy commissioner Asumana said the framework in its current form is projected to raise about US$10 billion to US$12 billion a year. She called that money a compliance cost that developing economies would ultimately bear, and said it was unclear how much of it would return to them.
A technical officer on the Liberian team said Liberia’s own impact assessment covered only one export, iron ore. The officer said adding rice, the country’s staple, and other goods moved by ship would paint a worse picture. The team urged other least developed countries and small island developing states to run their own country-level assessments rather than rely on regional studies.
The team said the plan would still meet the IMO’s 2023 greenhouse gas strategy. The presenter said it would cut emissions by 25% by 2030, above the strategy’s 20% target, while striving for 30%. By 2040 it would reach about 75%, within the strategy’s range of 70% to 80%, and net zero by 2050, as cleaner fuels mature and the standard tightens.
The Liberian officials also said MARPOL, the international convention on pollution from ships, should remain a technical instrument. They said it should not carry a financing mechanism such as the Net-Zero Fund.
Liberia Maritime Authority Commissioner Neto Zarzar Lighe Sr. said the question for poor and island nations is whether they should first bear heavy trade and economic costs to raise money that may never fully offset the harm.
“Our objective is not to weaken ambition, but to make it achievable, equitable, and sustainable for all member states, especially developing and climate vulnerable countries,” Lighe said.
He described the New York event as a continuation of a presentation the team made in London a few weeks earlier. He thanked Panama for co-sponsoring the proposal.
Minister Nyanti said the Foreign Ministry’s role is to mobilize international support for Liberia’s agenda on maritime safety, maritime security and its net-zero program as part of the country’s climate diplomacy. She said the ministry fully aligns itself with the position of Liberia’s maritime experts. She said discussions on net zero would take place at several high-level meetings and side meetings next month.
Liberia’s Permanent Reprsentative to the United Nations, Amb. Lewis Brown, who closed the event, said Liberia is the largest ship registry by tonnage, which brings climate responsibility. He said Liberia does not want to penalize countries that are not the main polluters, “nor do we wish to permit people who can pay for pollution to simply pay for it and get away with it.”
Several Middle Eastern and North African states supported Liberia’s proposal during IMO talks in April, among them Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Somalia, Yemen and Tunisia. The president of the Union of Greek Shipowners, Melina Travlos, endorsed it in August.
Liberia, Argentina and Panama had all opposed the framework before sponsoring the alternative. The United States led opposition to the framework when it was presented in 2025.
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