An extraordinary meeting at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to vote on the world’s first global carbon taxing system on the shipping industry has voted to postpone implementation for one year.

The ‘Net Zero Framework’, which was adopted by the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee in April, had been expected to be voted through officially by the IMO. However, following US president Donald Trump’s threats to punish countries who voted for what he called a ‘Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping’, the vote has ended in neither refusal nor adoption – simply postponement.