The US, Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries have objected to further work on guidelines around the implementation of the IMO’s net-zero framework at a working group meeting this week, having blocked the adoption of the NZF at last week’s meeting.

The countries see work on NZF guidelines as premature before the NZF is adopted, according to sources at the GHG working group meeting in London this week.

At last week’s extraordinary session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee, member states voted to delay a vote on adoption of the NZF by a year after strong opposition to it from the US, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Opposition to the NZF was partly based on the grounds that not enough detail had yet been set on how the framework would work in practice.