Discussions about climate finance are usually framed around national borders: wealthy countries rightfully paying more than less-developed states for their historic responsibility in the climate crisis.
But holding only countries accountable for the damage done to our planet lets other polluters, often much larger than some major economies, off the hook.
We have a unique opportunity to rethink the whole approach, and set an important precedent where a major emitting industry – for the first time ever – pays for its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the global level.
This industry is international shipping, whose global climate regulator, the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), is meeting on March 11-22 to negotiate on policies to achieve its climate commitments and cut GHG emissions from ships.
This includes putting a price on shipping emissions, which the IMO has agreed to adopt in 2025.
Pacific “mixed feelings” after compromise on shipping’s climate goals
A multi-billion dollar sector powered by cheap fossil fuels, shipping has reached the point of emitting more pollution than all but the top five emitting countries worldwide. This is roughly the same amount as Germany or Japan in a year, and yet it remains almost tax-free.
Last year, the IMO reached a historic agreement to cut emissions 30% by 2030 and 80% by 2040, in order to reach net-zero by mid-century. This was in great part due to the valiant efforts of the Pacific Island delegations, who have for years now led the push for the highest ambition possible at the IMO.
Even though these targets fall short of what climate scientists say is necessary to limit global temperature rise to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal, it is in of itself the first deal of its kind. If achieved, it will help avoid over 10 billion tonnes of emissions cumulatively from now to 2050.
Polluters must pay their fair share
A growing number of governments and industry players back putting a price on international shipping emissions, so that polluters pay their fair share for the transition through a levy.
But the devil is in the details, and all eyes must be on the IMO, where the final decisions will be taken.
A well-designed levy will speed up the phase out of GHG emissions, help close the price gap between fossil and sustainable alternative fuels, and send a strong market signal to move towards zero emission solutions. But this must be done in a way that is just and equitable, particularly for those in the developing countries most impacted by the climate crisis.
Dozens of oil & industry lobbyists attended secretive shipping emissions talks
Crucially, a good levy will also generate significant revenues – between $1 trillion to $3.7 trillion could be raised by 2050. As called for by the Pacific islands at IMO, and supported by analysis from the World Bank, these funds ought to be allocated first and foremost towards supporting climate-vulnerable countries.
These revenues are new and additional, and completely separate from developed countries’ climate finance commitments negotiated at the COP summits. This is of paramount importance – otherwise we would be shifting the historic responsibility for climate change from developed countries, and their commitments under the UN climate convention, to industry.
These are two completely distinct and independent sources of funding.
The push for an ambitious levy
There are several levy proposals the IMO can choose from. The most ambitious one – which could secure a just and equitable transition – is a levy put forward by Belize, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu of $150/tonne of greenhouse emissions. A significant part of the revenues from this levy would go towards helping climate-vulnerable poorer countries fund shipping’s renewable energy transition, compensate for any rise in transport costs, and adapt to climate change.
The European Union has also recently reiterated its support for pricing GHG emissions, but is yet to support any specific proposal on the table. As the biggest negotiating bloc at the IMO, it is absolutely crucial that EU member states support a truly ambitious proposal, such as the one put forward by the Pacific Islands and Belize. Not doing so risks allowing momentum to grow around proposals that do not live up to the level of ambition we need at the IMO.
Other proposals currently on the table pose serious risks of incentivising the use of fossil fuels, such as LNG, and do not prioritise funds to support climate-vulnerable countries, which stand to lose the most from this transition without the right supportive measures in place.
We are at a crossroads – not just when it comes to shipping‘s climate action but also the way countries approach new and additional financial flows, and the March talks need to lead us in the right direction.
I urge governments not to miss this important opportunity, and make their voice heard at the IMO in support of an ambitious levy, such as the Pacific and Belize proposal, to get ships off fossil fuels and secure a globally just and equitable transition that leaves no country behind.
Ana Laranjeira is senior international shipping policy manager with Opportunity Green, an NGO working to unlock the opportunities from tackling climate change using law, economics, and policy. Since 2022, Opportunity Green has been working bilaterally with a number of ambitious climate-vulnerable IMO Member States towards building their capacity to actively participate in negotiations.
The post How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts appeared first on Climate Home News.
How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts
SYDNEY, Thursday 30 October 2026 — In response to reports that the Albanese government is set to introduce draft legislation this year that would seek to ban data centres in Australia’s suburbs, Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“These reports are a testament to the growing community opposition to these completely inappropriate AI factories that have sprung up across our suburbs, and Big Tech corporations should take heed — the data centre build-out must not happen without the endorsement of the Australian people.
“But the government can’t simply ship this problem out to regional Australia without addressing the fundamental issues with this extractive new industry.
“We’re already seeing a trend of AI data centre proposals moving to the regions, in areas that are more water-scarce, more environmentally sensitive, and next to sources of fracked and coal seam gas to support their massive BYO gas-fired power plans — a pattern we’ve seen play out in the United States.
“From the Beetaloo Basin in the NT to the Western Downs in Qld, we’re seeing a wave of AI data centre proposals that would see new gas fast-tracked to support their massive energy demand, and threaten to completely derail Australia’s energy transition.
“Just as suburban Australians are asking, “what for?”, regional communities like Berry Springs and Dalby do not want dirty data centres setting up shop with absolutely no benefit to their communities. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on AI data centre developments until strict and enforceable safeguards are in place to protect our climate and our communities.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
AI data centre ban in suburbs would not address fundamental issues: Greenpeace
In the thick of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in 2024, the UN climate talks were rattled by what can only be described as a major PR disaster. The BBC, Reuters and The Guardian all carried headlines, attributed to leading climate policy experts, that the COPs were “no longer fit for purpose”.
The articles outlined a series of reforms called for in an open letter signed by 22 eminent scientists and politicians, including a former UN secretary-general and previous UN climate chief, with a further 150 lending their support. The headlines shook confidence in the COP process, just as governments were wrestling over a new climate finance goal.
The Club of Rome – which handled the media relations for the letter – hurried to say that its “constructive, supportive ideas” had been “misinterpreted”. Negotiators kept calm(ish) and carried on, in the end landing the finance goal after some high-stakes drama on the final day.
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Early speakers’ list suggests few powerful leaders will attend COP31
Just 77 heads of state or government are scheduled to address the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, a third less than the COP28 peak -
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To my surprise, when I went back this week to read the letter again, I could not find the offending line about the COPs not being fit for purpose. The Club of Rome has yet to respond to my query about its disappearance.
Whatever happened to the wording, that sentiment has been widely shared. COPs have ballooned in size while the importance of their outcomes seems to have diminished since the 2015 Paris Agreement (with the exception of the 2023 COP in Dubai where countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems).
The same on the surface
Two years on from those painful headlines in Baku, has anything changed for the better? You might be forgiven for thinking not. Official decisions are still made by consensus rather than the majority voting some have called for to stop blockers.
Tens of thousands of officials, activists and business execs still scurry around the halls to an ever-growing list of side events, roundtables and dialogues, while deals still come down to rows, all-nighters and jargon-filled texts adopted to rounds of applause.
But it would not be true to say that COPs have completely failed to respond to the very real need to translate the words of the Paris Agreement into action in the outside world.
Global warming is projected to be around 1.3C lower this century than it would have been if the world had not committed to tackle the climate crisis under that accord. Developing countries have a valued space at COPs in which their voices have equal weight in decision-making, unlike in many other international fora. And most importantly, perhaps, there has been a subtle shift, tipping the balance away from negotiating towards doing.
Brazil branded last year’s summit in Belém as the “COP of Implementation”, corralling the sprawling Action Agenda into six axes. This was a bid to impose some structure on the mushrooming efforts between governments, UN agencies, cities, businesses and civil society to set targets and spur faster results on their pet issues, from methane emissions to health and adaptation in conflict zones. COP30 alone saw the launch of 120 “plans to accelerate solutions”.
COP30 roadmaps off the cuff
Meanwhile, as the formal negotiations drew to a close, it was clear that consensus decision-making was evolving into something a little more improvised.
With only around half of all countries on board with the idea of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago announced his team would put one together over the coming year, along with another on how to meet a global goal to halt deforestation by 2030. Those roadmaps will be launched next week, presented and discussed at COP31, though it’s still unclear whether or how they’ll be incorporated into the formal negotiating agenda.
Some leading policy-makers don’t think that matters too much. Speaking to journalists before the Antalya summit, COP30 CEO Ana Toni and Dutch climate minister Stientje van Veldhoven said “coalitions of the willing” can move ahead without needing consensus from the COPs. This, they said, was evident this year at the first global conference on TAFF, co-chaired by van Veldhoven and attended by 60 countries.
“Consensus or no-consensus in the general COP doesn’t make a difference for the choices I have to make in my country to get my country to phase out fossil fuels,” said the Dutch minister. The Netherlands recently became one of the first to publish a national TAFF plan.
COP31 banks on flagship voluntary initiatives
This thinking has permeated the management and expected outcomes of this year’s COP too. Earlier this year, Türkiye, supported by international energy agencies, floated the idea of a voluntary goal to boost electrification to 35% of the world’s final energy consumption by 2035 – and this is now being touted as one of the main results to be expected from Antalya.
Türkiye is also championing a pledge on AI and climate, while co-host Australia is pushing to ease access to climate finance for least developed countries and small island states.
COP31 presidency announces AI pledge as UN climate chief says Big Tech ‘on thin ice’
None of these needs consensus. But with a political cover decision already in the works, as trailed by the COP presidents, they – and perhaps the fossil fuel roadmap – may find a home in the official text if language acceptable to most can be found, giving them them additional weight.
UNFCCC reform process in the shadows
Formal reform is underway too, if quietly. UN climate chief Simon Stiell is leading a review informed by ongoing consultations with a group of 15 well-respected climate policy experts, three of whom signed the open letter in 2024.
Among them is leading Swedish climate and sustainability scientist Johan Rockström who has strong ideas about how to make COPs function better, including a switch to majority voting. He told the same press briefing nothing stands in the way of this, because the rules of procedure for making decisions at COPs have never been formally agreed.
Still, to get away from the default setting of consensus would require agreement on a new system that may be impossible to achieve given the rise in bullying tactics by fossil fuel heavyweights.
Comment: The UN climate process was built for negotiation – now it must support implementation
The deliberations with the high-level policy gurus, as reflected in a summary of June’s session in Bonn, largely echo what’s already happening organically, calling for stronger partnerships and accountability both in and between the Action Agenda and negotiations. It doesn’t mention voting.
A general overview of the reform exercise says that “improving and optimizing the [UN climate] process over the medium to long term… will be critical to fostering trust, enhancing collaboration, and catalyzing increased ambition”.
In the short term, don’t hold your breath for anything concrete on reform at COP31 but watch for signs in what ends up dominating the headlines from Türkiye.
The post Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines appeared first on Climate Home News.
Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines
With the COP31 climate summit in Turkey looming, all eyes are on China to see what the country will push for in the negotiations.
At COP30 last year, China helped to secure a “dialogue” on climate-related “unilateral trade measures”, as well as a two-year “work programme” concerning climate finance.
The nation also championed south-south cooperation throughout the conference and co-led a summit on methane, alongside Brazil and the UK.
In a recent press conference, China’s environment vice-minister Li Gao noted the need to “uphold multilateralism” and send a “clear political signal” that the global community is united around climate action.