IMO MEPC 84 Preview: Net-Zero Framework in Holding Pattern, Plastic Strategy on the Table

The Marine Environment Protection Committee's 84th session, running April 27 through May 1 at IMO Headquarters in London, arrives with the global shipping regulator caught between the crisis it cannot solve and the crisis it is trying to. The 2026 Strait of Hormuz disruption has rewritten the short-term compliance calendar for almost every flag state in attendance, but MEPC 84 will not debate war risk or passage security. Its agenda is the longer-dated one: carbon, plastics, and the mid-term rules that were supposed to be settled by now.

The headline item is what MEPC 84 will not do. The IMO Net-Zero Framework, which would have introduced the world's first legally binding global carbon price for any sector alongside a lifecycle fuel standard, was deferred in October 2025 after a procedural vote pushed formal adoption to October 2026. That timeline leaves MEPC 84 as an 'interim checkpoint' rather than a decision point. A working group on mid-term GHG reduction measures is expected to be re-established, with 57 documents filed under the agenda item — an unusually heavy paper load that reflects the number of delegations still trying to rewrite the compromise text before the October vote. Expect movement on Carbon Intensity Indicator strengthening, fuel-standard methodology, and the mechanics of the revenue-distribution fund, but no binding outcomes.

The substantive deliverable is the 2026 Strategy and Action Plan to Address Marine Plastic Litter from Ships, which MEPC 84 is expected to adopt. The new strategy replaces the 2021 Strategy and 2025 Action Plan and commits to zero plastic waste discharges from ships by 2030. Three operational elements matter for operators: tightened port reception facility requirements, expanded seafarer training obligations on waste segregation and reporting, and a new draft MEPC circular promoting implementation of fishing gear marking under the FAO Voluntary Guidelines. The fishing gear circular is non-binding but sets the template for later, binding rules on ghost-gear liability — a significant shift for the owners of the roughly 4.6 million fishing vessels that IMO data classifies as commercial.

Biofouling management is the other quiet mover. Following MEPC 83's decision to develop a legally binding framework to prevent the spread of invasive aquatic species via ships' hulls, the PPR sub-committee has agreed on fundamental elements to guide drafting. MEPC 84 will not finalize the framework, but it will likely lock in the scope — in-water cleaning standards, inspection regimes, and the treatment of ballast-water-style record keeping for hull biofouling. Classification societies and coatings suppliers have been preparing for this for two years; the language chosen at MEPC 84 will shape which markets move first.

For operators based in affected jurisdictions, the most practical item on the agenda may be the quietest. With the Net-Zero Framework in holding pattern, regional carbon measures — notably the EU Emissions Trading System extension to shipping and FuelEU Maritime — remain the binding constraints through at least late 2026. MEPC 84's failure to produce a hard convergence timeline will push more owners to assume a patchwork regime persists: IMO Data Collection System reporting, EU ETS allowances, regional fuel standards, and now likely a separate biofouling regime, all compounding.

The meeting itself is unusually politically sensitive. U.S. delegation positioning since the October 2025 postponement has hardened, and several Gulf and Caribbean states have signaled they will not support the current Net-Zero Framework text without renegotiated revenue flows. MEPC 84 will not resolve any of that. What it will do is tell the shipping industry whether October's vote is still a live possibility, or whether the decarbonization agenda has quietly slipped into 2027.