In a decision that echoes through the halls of international climate diplomacy with the sound of retreat, a majority of nations at the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization have voted to shelve the world’s first global carbon tax on shipping, succumbing to a fierce pressure campaign led by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The move, finalized in a late Friday vote in London, delays for at least one year the adoption of a measure that would have charged ships for their planet-heating pollution.
The framework, agreed upon in principle this past April, was intended to steer the massive shipping industry toward its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
The outcome was a direct result of a vehement lobbying effort from the Trump administration, which had labeled the proposed levy a “Global Green New Scam Tax.”
In the days leading up to the vote, President Donald Trump took to social media to declare his outrage, and the U.S. State Department followed with a stark threat of sanctions, visa restrictions, and port levies against any nation that supported the measure.
This diplomatic offensive proved decisive.
A hastily arranged resolution to postpone the matter, put forward by Saudi Arabia, passed by a vote of 57 to 49, with 70 nations abstaining.
The result grants a reprieve to an industry responsible for roughly 3% of global emissions—a share projected to grow dramatically without intervention.
The shelving of the tax represents more than a bureaucratic delay; it is a profound failure of collective action.
The proposed system would have penalized the dirtiest vessels up to $380 per tonne of excess emissions while rewarding cleaner ships, creating a financial incentive to innovate and a fund to fuel the industry’s green transition.
For vulnerable nations, the delay is an unacceptable gamble with their very survival. Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s climate change minister, called the decision “unacceptable given the urgency we face,” vowing to continue the fight for his people and the planet.
Meanwhile, the world is left to count the cost of a shortsighted victory.
The immediate political win for a handful of nations comes at the expense of a clearer, more expensive path to decarbonization for a global industry.
New Jersey is among the states most severely impacted by rising sea levels.
“Rising sea levels are poised to claim $6.3 billion worth of coastal property in New Jersey by 2050, according to a Climate Central analysis,” said anti-establishment progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick, who said that these lands will permanently become part of the tidal zone, a legal threshold that separates private property from public waters.
McCormick noted that her projection reflects the property value based on tax assessments, which is often far less than market rates. The current assessed-to-market value ratio is 60%
It is a familiar story, where the urgent, noisy demands of the present silence the steady, reasoned warnings about the future.
.The ships will continue to sail, their exhaust still unaccounted for, while the international community once again proves it can count votes far more easily than it can confront a gathering catastrophe.
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