US threatens tariffs and port levies to sink IMO green deal

Sam Chambers September 4, 2025

The United States is leaning hard on allies and rivals alike to reject a landmark United Nations agreement to slash emissions from marine fuels, Reuters reports. Washington has warned that nations pressing ahead with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) proposed framework could face a battery of retaliatory measures – from tariffs and port levies to visa restrictions.

The extraordinary intervention follows months of wrangling at the IMO over its net-zero plan for shipping, due for a vote next month.

“We are actively exploring and preparing to act on remedies including tariffs, visa restrictions, and/or port levies should this effort succeed,” a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters. “We will fight hard to protect the American people and their economic interests.”

Without clear, enforceable rules, shipowners can’t responsibly future-proof their fleets

The stance has set the US on a collision course with the EU and a number of Pacific and Asian nations who back the deal.

Washington’s threat to weaponise tariffs and port access could torpedo years of delicate negotiations on shipping’s climate pathway.

In a joint statement last month, US secretary of state Marco Rubio, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, energy secretary Chris Wright, and transportation secretary Sean Duffy said president Donald Trump would not accept “any international environmental agreement that unduly or unfairly burdens the United States or harms the interests of the American people.”

The proposed net-zero framework, agreed in principle by a majority of IMO member states in April, seeks to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector by introducing fuel standards and levies on ships that fail to meet strict targets. Proponents say the measures are critical to meeting the IMO’s 2050 climate goals, but the US delegation has argued the rules would disproportionately benefit China and penalise fuels where US industry leads such as LNG and biofuels.

The stance is consistent with April’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) session, where US negotiators walked out of talks. In April’s vote, 63 member states — including China, Brazil and EU nations — backed the framework, while 16 opposed.

The agreement constitutes a fuel standard, as such a mandate on the GHG intensity of energy used, coupled with a pricing and trading mechanism.

Ships that do not reduce their intensity of GHG emissions – including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — in line with two reduction trajectories outlined in the new regulations, which still need to be promulgated at the next MEPC in October, are deemed to have an emissions deficit. This must then be addressed by buying so-called remedial units.

The October decision will require a two-thirds majority – 108 of the 176 IMO members that have ratified the relevant convention – if consensus cannot be reached.

The IMO rarely resorts to voting, but with positions hardening, a formal ballot looks increasingly likely.

Environmental NGOs have condemned the US position, warning that further delay in regulating marine fuel emissions risks undermining the sector’s ability to meet climate targets.

“The upcoming MEPC session in October provides the appropriate platform to address any concerns from member states ahead of the adoption process,” a spokesperson for the IMO told Splash last month.

A spokesperson from BIMCO, shipping’s largest lobby group, told Splash the US stance is unlikely to derail implementation if the framework passes, but warned that Washington’s non-participation would complicate enforcement.

“Even when, or if, the US places reservations that the rules will not apply to them, it will, because all ships of non-US flag trading internationally are bound by their flag.US ships will also be required to comply if they trade internationally. There is only the option of non-party bilateral trade outside the rules,” the BIMCO spokesperson explained last month.

For shipowners, the bigger headache may be the uncertainty the US move injects into fuel investment decisions. Broker SSY said dry bulk ordering remains paralysed by the absence of clear, stable rules, with owners hedging between LNG, ammonia, and methanol in the hope of future-proofing fleets.

“Confidence matters more than rhetoric in shipping as without clear, enforceable rules, shipowners can’t responsibly future-proof their fleets, and decarbonisation will remain as just a costly exercise in risk management,” SSY noted in a recent markets update.

https://splash247.com/us-threatens-tariffs-and-port-levies-to-sink-imo-green-deal/

>>23547411

>>23547425

Would be quite the notable, but alas, no sauce

Floating Data Centers on Fast-Flowing Rivers

Published Sep 3, 2025 1:15 PM by The Maritime Executive

Advances in information processing technology and programming have increased the need for data centers capable of processing massive volumes of information. Data centers that float on water provide ready access to cooling capacity, with potential to convert the energy from sea waves and river currents to electrical energy to operate the onboard technology.

Introduction

Data centers process massive amounts of information and require continuous and reliable access to large amounts of electric power and substantial cooling capacity. When located on land in arid regions where solar photovoltaic energy is available, data centers require roof-mounted air-cooling technology that consumes massive amounts of electrical power. While waterfront coastal locations provide easy and available access to water cooling, market demand for such locations is very high, with high real estate prices.

A cubic volume of water can provide over 3,400 times the thermal capacity of an identical cubic volume of air. Even in warm climates, the temperature of coastal seawater and river water is often cooler than air temperature. At locations where winds blow constantly, wind energy generates waves. It is possible for some technologies to convert energy from a choppy water surface to electrical energy. At other locations next to rivers, there may be scope to install a waterwheel or a turbine to convert the kinetic energy of flowing water to electrical power. While such locations are no longer available in large cities, some suitable sites might still be available in rural and remote locations to operate a data center.

Suitable Rivers

Data centers require a constant and reliable supply of electrical power, from rivers with reliable and steady water flow, with minimal variation in flow velocity and water depth. The East River in New York City is a suitable candidate. While looking like a river and flowing like a river, it is actually an oceanic channel with flow driven by ocean current. Downstream of Niagara Falls, the Niagara River provides steady water depth and steady flow velocity while being close to a large population. At either location, floating docks restrained by cables could provide access between shore and data center.

East of Lake Ontario and downstream of the Moses – Saunders power dam, water of sufficient depth and velocity flows through the north and south channels of the Upper St Lawrence River. Further east and southwest of Montreal, a section of the St. Lawrence River could sustain operation of a floating data center. Kinetic ferry vessels driven by water current could carry technical personnel between shore and midstream floating data center, and optic telecommunications cable could connect between the data center and shore-based work stations, reducing the number of workers who travel by ferry between shore and data center.

Conclusions

Advances in information processing technology along with the development of advanced programming have increased the need to expand the capabilities of data centers. Data centers consume massive amounts of electrical energy and have massive cooling requirements. A data center that floats on water where powerful currents flow, likely have access to required cooling capacity along with the ability to convert river flow energy into electrical power to sustain data center operation. Some future data centers would likely float on fast flowing rivers that pass near large or through cities.

More:

https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/floating-data-centers-on-fast-flowing-rivers

>>23547435

If it's floating in a river, how to your figure it's outside national law?

>>23547463

>trump camp cryin over bud light and shit

What cryin?

AB Inbev did a woke stupid thing, customers went to the competition and when they tried to pull out the Clydesdales it just made it worse

Canada #82

Bulgaria debunks von der Leyen jet claims

The EU Commission president claimed that Russia had interfered with her airplane’s navigation systems

4 Sep, 2025

There is no evidence Russia interfered with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s airplane during her recent flight to Bulgaria, the country’s authorities have said. The European Commission earlier claimed Bulgarian authorities had confirmed the incident.

On Sunday, upon landing in Plovdiv on a PR exercise to visit “Europe's frontline states,” von der Leyen’s pilots allegedly reported issues with their navigation systems. Brussels later told the Financial Times that her flight was “forced to circle for an hour” and claimed that Moscow had “blatantly interfered” with the aircraft, supposedly trying to jam its GPS signal.

NATO chief Mark Rutte claimed “we are all on the eastern flank now, whether you live in London or Tallinn. ”

However, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has outright contradicted Brussels’ claim, telling parliament on Thursday that no evidence of a Russian attack had been found and that von der Leyen’s plane did not suffer any serious issues, only short-term signal degradation which is common in densely populated areas.

“After checking the onboard records, we saw that the pilot did not express any concerns. The plane was in the holding area for about five minutes, and the signal quality remained good the entire time,” Zhelyazkov was quoted as saying by Bild.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov has also confirmed that there is “not a single fact that confirms the claim that the plane’s GPS signal was jammed,” citing empirical data, radio intercepts, recordings of our civil and military departments.

In an interview with bTV, Karadjov also denied sharing any information about the incident with the European Commission.

Moscow on Thursday dismissed the “preposterous” accusations pushed by Brussels, pointing to publicly available flight tracking data which indicates that von der Leyen’s jet had reported good GPS signal quality throughout the flight.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the EU’s accusations were “not just paranoia, but a cynical plot to distract their own population from the EU’s worsening economic situation and from considering the real culprits behind the European crisis – the irresponsible, kleptocratic political elites of the European Union.”

Since 2024, the Nordic and Baltic countries have accused Russia of disrupting communications on planes and ships as a form of “hybrid warfare,” allegations Russia has denied.

https://www.rt.com/news/624127-bulgaria-debunks-eu-jet-claim/

>>23547981

Anons have years ago discerned Fulford is a more of a flake than David Icke

>>23548156

Fulford is still a flake

Fulford is brought up weekly now

>>23548277

Hi smartdust, roll in any cyanide coated leaves lately?