American officials have threatened supporters of measure to reduce emissions with tariffs and other retaliatory action
Donald Trump’s government is putting intense pressure on vulnerable countries to vote against measures that would force shipping companies to pay for their carbon emissions.
US officials have written to countries that support the measure and besieged them with phone calls threatening to impose tariffs, withdraw visa rights and take other retaliatory action.
The moves appear to be having some impact and, if successful, could throw more than two decades of tortuously slow progress on decarbonising the shipping industry into reverse.
Representatives from most of the 176 member states of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which governs global seafaring, are meeting at its headquarters in London for four days of talks. They are expected to approve new rules that would levy charges on ships based on their greenhouse gas emissions. The money raised would go to funding the transition to cleaner fuels for ships and to help developing countries.
