Observers say pressure on IMO negotiations appears to be linked to countries that have invested heavily in gas

Fiona Harvey Environment editor
Fri 1 May 2026 07.00 BST

About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the strait of Hormuz, a strip of sea less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, before it was in effect closed by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which sent the price of oil soaring and left an estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 vessels stranded.

Their plight has shone a spotlight on the complex and dirty relationship between shipping and the fossil fuel industry. The sector is one of the most polluting, with most ship engines fuelled by what has been called the dregs of the oil refining process, heavy and carbon-intensive diesel too filthy for any other purpose. Shipping produces about 3% of global greenhouse gases, a portion set to rise as trade globalises further.

But the relationship with oil goes even deeper: not only are vessels dependent on “bunker fuel”, but shipping companies also rely heavily on fossil fuels as cargo. “About 40% of the global fleet is used to transport fossil fuels,” said Marie Fricaudet, of the shipping and oceans group at the Energy Institute, University College London. “[That’s] a trade that must be phased out to prevent the most severe impacts of climate change.”

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Several countries with strong national LNG interests disrupted the talks last year, chief among them the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they were joined in opposing key aspects of the carbon regulations by Liberia and the Marshall Islands, which through their national flag registries – systems by which shipowners can pay a fee to be registered in a certain country – are “strongly correlated with LNG exposure”, Smith said.

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