Global shipping entered 2026 having missed the clean-fuel sprint the industry once promised itself. The consensus among maritime executives now is that this year is defined less by breakthrough fuels and more by interim compliance — buying optionality rather than committing to a single technology pathway. The regulatory centerpiece stalled, but survived. The IMO’s Net-Zero Framework — a proposed global fuel standard, lifecycle emissions accounting, and an economic mechanism that would start pricing greenhouse gas emissions from ships — emerged from the April–May 2026 Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting (MEPC 84) bruised and delayed rather than formally adopted.