Free Foundation

The IMO Net-Zero Framework

What the IMO's approved, but not yet adopted, mid-term measure would actually require: a declining well-to-wake GHG fuel intensity path for ships over 5,000 GT, two-tier pricing at USD 100 and USD 380 per tonne, surplus units, rewards for zero and near-zero fuels, and what a shipowner should be doing while adoption is pending.

Lessons
6
Quiz questions
48
Time
about 40 minutes
Who it's for
Shipowners, operators, technical and chartering staff who need the framework's mechanics and cost logic before it becomes law, and anyone who has to brief management on where IMO decarbonisation policy actually stands.
Assumed knowledge
None. Familiarity with IMO DCS, CII and FuelEU Maritime helps; our free course Maritime Regulations, Explained covers all three.

Part of the Maritime Decarbonisation & Compliance specialisation.

In April 2025, MEPC 83 approved the most consequential piece of shipping regulation in a generation: amendments to MARPOL Annex VI that would set a declining well-to-wake GHG fuel intensity path for every ship over 5,000 GT and attach a price to missing it. Then came the harder part. An extraordinary session in October 2025 adjourned without adopting it; MEPC 84 (May 2026) deferred it again; a resumed session was expected before the end of 2026, with entry into force no earlier than around 2028.

This course teaches the framework as exactly what it is, approved, adoption pending, because the mechanics are worth learning either way. The numbers in the approved text already shape newbuild specifications, charter negotiations and fuel strategy, and ships trading to Europe live under a close cousin of the same logic today.

Six lessons: where the framework came from (the 2023 IMO GHG Strategy); how the two-part mechanism works; the actual numbers: the 93.3 gCO2eq/MJ reference, two target ladders, and remedial units at USD 100 and USD 380; zero and near-zero fuels and the Net-Zero Fund; what compliance would cost and how owners would choose between fuel, units and contributions; and the adoption record as dated facts, with a sensible posture while it is pending.

Every lesson cites open IMO, class-society and industry sources you can check yourself.

What the course covers

  1. From Strategy to Framework: Why a Mid-Term Measure 6 min
  2. The Two-Part Mechanism: A Fuel Standard With a Price Attached 7 min
  3. The Numbers: One Reference, Two Ladders, Two Prices 7 min
  4. Zero and Near-Zero Fuels and the Net-Zero Fund 6 min
  5. Compliance Strategies and What They Would Cost 7 min
  6. The Road to Adoption: A Dated Record and a Sensible Posture 7 min

Start the first lesson →