reports has published a report dated 11 November 2026 noting that member states of the International Maritime organisation have been meeting informally as the UN agency prepares for ISWG 23 and MEPC 85.
Those informal gatherings are described as attempts to identify a pathway for agreeing and adopting a robust set of policy measures capable of delivering on the IMO’s 2023 Greenhouse Gas agenda, the report states.
Informal preparatory talks
The report says the encounters ahead of the 23rd Intersessional Working Group and the 85th meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee are intended to narrow differences and explore technical and political options that might attract broad support.
Such informal engagement typically allows delegations to test compromise language and to seek common ground without the pressures of formal plenary procedure, the item explains.
Focus on deliverability and policy design
According to the published note, the emphasis of these discussions has been on measures that are practicable to implement and enforce, and on shaping policy so it can deliver the outcomes set out in 2023.
The report highlights an underlying objective: to produce policy measures that can be translated into effective regulation and enforcement once they are agreed at the IMO fora, rather than leaving matters unresolved until formal sessions.
Observers and delegations will be watching whether the informal exchanges translate into concrete negotiating text for ISWG 23 and then for MEPC 85, the item comments.
Even where positions remain distant, the report indicates that preparatory dialogue can clarify technical issues, expose areas of national flexibility and identify where additional analysis or compromise may be required.
This process is framed in the report as part of the routine diplomacy that surrounds major regulatory work at the IMO, with member states using inter-sessional time to reduce the scope of disagreement before formal negotiations take place.
Any decisions that emerge from the formal sessions will still depend on the usual IMO processes and voting rules, but the report suggests that a clearer sense of possible compromise could improve the prospects for timely agreement.
For now, the published item provides a snapshot of the preparatory phase, underlining the continuing effort by delegations to reconcile differing interests while seeking to uphold the commitments agreed in 2023 on greenhouse-gas-related ambitions for international shipping.
The report of 11 November 2026 thus records a phase of negotiation that will feed into the formal intersessional and MEPC workstreams in the weeks to follow.