EU to insist on controversial carbon tax, setting stage for clash with US

A coalition of the world’s top three ship registries, Liberia, Panama and the Marshall Islands, plus oil tanker companies including Saudi Arabia’s Bahri urged IMO members to consider alternatives to the original carbon pricing plan when they meet next week.

"Support for the framework in its current form has continued to erode" since the IMO meeting last year, they said in a statement.

The IMO decision last year split the EU, as Greece and Cyprus - each home to major shipping industries - broke ranks with the bloc and abstained in the vote, rather than supporting the EU-backed climate proposal.

Greece, Malta and Italy declined to endorse the new EU negotiating position, which was passed by a reinforced majority of EU countries, officials said.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett and Jonathan Saul, additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)