The IMO has a decision date. Waiting still has a cost.

The IMO's Net-Zero Framework now has a decision date: 4 December 2026, when MEPC resumes its Second Extraordinary Session after MEPC 85.

For anyone running a fleet, the practical problem is not the outcome. It is the option value of waiting. Every month the price signal stays undefined is a month in which a fuel-switching decision looks better deferred, and in which a first-mover supplier struggles to reach FID without an offtake.

Regulation will arrive. It will arrive later than the assets need it to. Until then Carbon3 provides the part that does not require a treaty: making a verified reduction at the vessel financially visible to the cargo owners who carry it as Scope 3, so abatement can be co-financed by the value chain rather than deferred until a compliance price forces it. Insetting is not a substitute for the framework, it is what can move while the framework is being agreed.

The companies acting before December are not betting against the IMO. They are refusing to let the calendar set their capital plan.