The world’s maritime nations preserved a plan to adopt the first global carbon fee on shipping, as they agreed to keep working on it in the fall and adjourned their meeting Friday.
However, they also agreed to continue discussing alternative proposals and entertain new ones, which could change the plan substantially.
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FILE - Shipping containers sit stacked at PortMiami, in front of the downtown Miami skyline, at sunset on April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
LPG tanker Clipper Eris, which uses onboard carbon capture technologies, is docked at the Port of Antwerp in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
LPG tanker Clipper Eris, which uses onboard carbon capture technologies, is docked at the Port of Antwerp in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
FILE - Shipping containers are stacked at Westport in Klang on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
FILE - A container ship approaches the port of Santos in Brazil, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
Nations met this week at the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London in preparation for potentially voting in the late fall on new, global regulations to clean up shipping, or the “Net-zero Framework." Instead of finishing the discussions, the delegates scheduled more meetings for the fall to keep working ahead of a vote, keeping the framework as a foundation for their negotiations.
A number of countries submitted alternative proposals and suggested changes, and said those should still be on the table, for inclusive, constructive negotiations. The meeting chairman, Harry Conway of Liberia, assured the group on Friday that these options could still be considered at the forthcoming meetings, and new documents could still be submitted. The document that outlines the work for these meetings was modified to make that explicit.
Australia and others expressed concerns that continuing to discuss alternatives would set the process back, when the impacts of climate change are being felt worldwide and the shipping industry is calling for certainty now to make investments in green technologies.
As the meeting closed, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said “we kind of are back on track,” while urging delegates to rebuild trust and continue talking to each another.
Em Fenton, of Opportunity Green, said the framework survived, with a majority of countries supporting it, but “survival is not a victory and we cannot end up in a cycle of open-ended negotiations.”
“We must now look forward to moving toward adoption of the framework later this year in a way that maintains urgency and ambition, and delivers justice and equity for countries on the front lines of climate impacts,” said Fenton, senior director for climate diplomacy at the U.K.-based climate change nonprofit.
The regulations would establish a pricing system which would impose fees for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above allowable limits, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions. The United States and Saudi Arabia are among those that strongly oppose a fee.
Nations agreed on the Net-zero Framework last year. Delegates met in October to adopt it, a step that was widely expected to be a formality. The U.S., with trade threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, and support from Saudi Arabia and others, derailed the meeting. Delegates decided to postpone the decision by a year and adjourn.
Most ships today run on heavy fuel oil that releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants as it’s burned. Shipping emissions have grown over the past decade to about 3% of the global total as trade has grown and vessels use immense amounts of fossil fuels to transport cargo over long distances. There is a lot of interest in ammonia as an alternative fuel because the molecule doesn’t contain carbon.
The framework would set a marine fuel standard that decreases, over time, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from using shipping fuels. The regulations also would establish the pricing mechanism. The fees collected would go into an IMO fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships.
This will put the global shipping industry on more sustainable footing, both environmentally and economically, than where it is today, said Mark Brownstein, senior vice president, energy transition at Environmental Defense Fund. Oil prices keep going higher since the war with Iran began.
The IMO, which regulates international shipping, set a target for the sector to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by about 2050, and has committed to ensuring that fuels with zero or near-zero emissions are used more widely.
Large ships last about 25 years, so the industry would need to make changes and investments now to reach the goal around 2050. The International Chamber of Shipping, which represents over 80% of the world’s merchant fleet, has advocated for adoption of the regulations.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE - Shipping containers sit stacked at PortMiami, in front of the downtown Miami skyline, at sunset on April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
LPG tanker Clipper Eris, which uses onboard carbon capture technologies, is docked at the Port of Antwerp in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
LPG tanker Clipper Eris, which uses onboard carbon capture technologies, is docked at the Port of Antwerp in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
FILE - Shipping containers are stacked at Westport in Klang on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
FILE - A container ship approaches the port of Santos in Brazil, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide held May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, when workers’ unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were held from Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta to many European capitals. In the U.S., activists opposing President Donald Trump’s policies also held marches and boycotts.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
What to know about May Day:
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East emerged as a key theme in Friday’s rallies.
In the Philippine capital, Manila, large crowds denounced the U.S. role in the Iran war. Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the U.S. Embassy.
On a main avenue in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, taxi drivers honked their horns and bus drivers parked their vehicles to protest rising fuel costs.
“All my expenses have gone up, but my wages haven’t budged,” Akherraz Lhachimi of the Moroccan Labor Union said.
Turkish authorities in Istanbul detained hundreds of demonstrators for attempting to march in areas declared off-limits on security grounds, most notably central Taksim Square, the epicenter of 2013 protests. May Day rallies in Turkey are frequently marred by clashes with authorities.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into a public square across from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, celebrating Cuba's workers and decrying U.S. sanctions. Many held banners that read, “Down with Imperialism” and “U.S. hands off Cuba.” President Miguel Díaz-Canel and former President Raúl Castro attended.
A demonstration in Santiago, Chile, ended with vandalism and clashes between protesters and police, who used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Other demonstrations in the South American nation were peaceful as thousands of workers took to the streets to demand better working conditions. The unemployment rate in Chile hovered around 9% in the first quarter of the year.
Several rallies were staged in South Africa, where the head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zingiswa Losi, said workers were “suffocating” under rising costs of food, electricity, transportation and healthcare.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France, after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Tens of thousands of people joined marches across the country, including in Paris, where brief scuffles with police broke out.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians. Faced with the dispute, the government this week introduced a bill that would allow bakeries and florists to open. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France.”
In the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday, May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, urged people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires” and called for an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Protesters voiced opposition to Trump's policies, including his immigration crackdown.
“We’re seeing tons and tons of attacks on working people and on oppressed communities from the Trump administration, both at home and abroad,” said Kathryn Stender, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation who was among thousands at a rally in a Chicago park.
The atmosphere was festive, with Native American dancers, mariachi bands and monarch butterfly signs, which have become a symbol of the immigrant rights movement.
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would have made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday. A Chicago rally in May 1886 turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
Turkish, right, and Greek Cypriots gathering s they marking May Day inside the U.N. buffer zone at Ledra Palace hotel in the divided capital of Nicosia, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
People gather before a May Day rally in Chicago, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
An effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump burns during an International Workers' Day march marking May Day in Panama City, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Members of trade unions take part in a May Day rally in Tsakane, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Protesters march during the May Day demonstration in Rennes, western France, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo)
A man holds a picture or former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wearing a prison uniform during a May Day rally demanding greater labor rights in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Protesters march during the May Day demonstration in Paris, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
An union member is detained by a Turkish police officer as people try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Union members scuffle with Turkish police officers as they try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
