The Daily View: Carrots, sticks and zombies

WHEN the US derailed the Net-Zero Framework in October last year, it did so by ripping up normal global diplomacy rules and using “bully boy tactics”.

Warnings of trade tariffs and personal threats against negotiators from countries who were not prepared to block a historic climate deal for shipping, won the day.

Some 108 days later the resistance has fallen away and the same US representative who was threatening negotiators is now receiving a warm round of applause from the shipping crowds at Capital Link in Greece this week.

Alliances have shifted and the US has weaponised industry climate scepticism to embolden political support towards the US.

EU countries had backed the Net-Zero Framework deal, but defections by Greece and Cyprus weakened the bloc’s hand and contributed to the deal’s failure.

Since then, others have followed. Behind closed doors in Brussels, Malta, Italy and now Spain are defying an EU policy that has not changed since last year’s defeat amid a growing internal schism.

The now jovial US bully boys headed to Greece this week and won over the crowd with jibes and jokes about the Net ‘Zombie’ Framework.

For them it is now less about the threats and more about encouraging states to join them.

More carrot, less stick.

This new friendly US approach is about saving the IMO from itself, they explained.

Turning the IMO into a global climate bank would have killed the institution. They are here to save it, not destroy it.

Besides, for the US this is not really about decarbonisation — it is about energy dominance.

The IMO secretary-general, meanwhile, eschewed Greece and headed to Brussels seeking compromise this week.

The EU is currently divided geographically between northern and southern states, but also internally where climate and transport officials are at loggerheads over rebooting the EU position.

EU climate officials — among the last defenders of the Green Deal-era approach amid industry pressure — oppose reopening the file. Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the Greek transport commissioner, disagrees and another political storm approaches just at the point that Cyprus (which is closely aligned with Greece) takes over the presidency.

Who wins that fight will matter a great deal to the ultimate outcome of the IMO Net-Zero framework.

If the latest internal documents reported by Reuters this week are to be believed, the climate-ultra camp inside the EU have taken a leaf of the US playbook.

According to the draft document, the 27-state bloc is looking at how to strengthen its strategy for future negotiations by using its trade, finance and development leverage in climate talks.

In other words, it wants to start making threats to force others to their way of thinking.

Richard Meade,
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

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