Flipping the IMO (2022 – ongoing)

This joint MCST project with the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and the University College London (UCL) focuses on ongoing professional capacity development for Pacific Island government delegations to enable them to effectively negotiate for high ambition outcomes in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in relation to reducing emissions from international ships.

Flipping the IMO Project Outputs 2022-2025

Since 2015 RMI has been leading a high-ambition coalition of Pacific Island States (the 6PAC) in participating in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) ongoing negotiations on reducing GHG emissions from international shipping. The original six Pacific delegations have grown to nine over time (the 6PAC+) and has been widely credited as being catalytic to  these negotiations; leading from the front with strong Pacific Ministerial endorsement, introducing the most ambitious economic carbon-pricing measure for any sector globally – the universal mandatory levy proposal and ensuring a unanimous commitment to ensuring any transition is just & equitable, and leaves no State behind.

MCST has evolved into a driving force in shaping the 6PAC+ position into the leading voice for ambitious climate action within the IMO GHG negotiations.. Through its research, publications, strategic partnerships and advocacy, MCST has consistently provided full technical, policy, research, legal and logistical support to the coalition, propelling the Pacific levy proposal to the forefront of global discussions on decarbonization. As the most mature, science-based, and 1.5°C-aligned proposal, it has garnered the support of countries outside the Pacific region, most notably from the Caribbean and African regions. The 6PAC+ delegations continue to lead the fight for 1.5 degrees at the GHG negotiations and play a fundamental role in shaping a Just and Equitable future for international shipping. 

The entire IMO GHG program now faces significant headwinds, with the US and Petrostates adopting a very aggressive stance against adoption of any economic measures for implementing the IMO’s 2023 GHG Reduction Strategy.  The compromise to the Pacific-led universal levy that had been agreed by a large majority was the Net Zero Framework (NZF). 

The NZF will achieve a lower level of emissions reduction than is needed under the Strategy, but it is a clear step in the right direction and sends a much needed signal to the market. The NZF also delivers less revenues than the universal levy, about $11-12billion p.a. Some of this revenue would be available for addressing domestic transition in SIDS and LDCs.  However, all this now hangs in the balance as the US and others are pressing hard.  Maintaining a strong Pacific participation and advocacy is critical if we are not to lose all the ground the Pacific has built over the past decade.

Regardless, our project is the most successful in IMO history at empowering participation by SIDS at IMO. From 2015 to 2021, MCST sourced short-term and ad hoc funding from a range of bilateral and NGO sources to maintain up to six Pacific Island delegations at IMO ISWG and MEPC negotiations on shipping GHG emission reduction.

In the first year of the Flipping the IMO (to June 2023), the project supported 93 delegate in-person attendances at six IMO Meetings in London, including four Ministers attending the watershed MEPC 80 meeting where IMO adopted unanimously the 2023 IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships. 

By the end of 2025 we have empowered participation of 324 delegates from 9 Pacific Island Countries to these negotiation sessions in London in support of 28 co-sponsored submissions. 

The program has allowed the Pacific to be relentless high ambition advocates in related global fora. In its first year alone the MCST was able to support 35 delegate in-person attendances at related fora such as the Singapore Maritime Week and the Panama One Ocean Summit and the 6PAC Regional Talanoa hosted in Fiji in May 2023.

Through workplace internships, postgraduate scholarships, technical and legal support on tap and ‘on the job’ experiences, the project continues to demonstrate the success of country-driven programming that focuses on education, research and training through a Pacific lens. With more Pacific governments choosing to become part of this initiative of initially six Pacific IMO member states, the ‘6PAC’ is now the ‘6PAC+’.

6PAC Alliance IMO negotiators 2023

6PAC IMO Alliance negotiators 2024

6PAC Alliance IMO delegates 2025

The Pacific Islands delegations are credited with playing a catalytic role in securing higher ambition in IMO GHG reduction negotiations 

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