When global emissions are on the table, international cooperation is often demanded, but rarely achieved.

However, what the International Maritime Organization (IMO) achieved in April 2025 can truly be described as “a groundbreaking commitment”, as Flore de Durfort, Co-Founder and CEO of Atmen, calls the IMO’s decision.

“It’s not every day that over 150 countries come together and agree to binding decarbonization targets for an entire sector.”  

The decision is particularly crucial as international shipping accounts for approximately 2-3% of global CO₂ emissions, a figure comparable to the annual emissions of major industrialized countries.

The IMO’s new net-zero framework introduces a twofold strategy. First: a global fuel standard that will force ships to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity (GFI) of their fuel year by year. Second: a carbon pricing mechanism that penalizes non-compliant vessels up to $480 per ton of CO₂. While rewarding low-emission ships with surplus units, they can trade or use them to offset emissions elsewhere in their fleet.

With implementation starting in 2027 and enforcement starting in 2028, the pressure is on. Shipowners, operators, and fuel producers must act now to prepare vessels, supply chains, and reporting systems for compliance.

Certification needed from Well-to-Wake

To a large extent, the green fuels market has been held back by uncertainty. Buyers couldn’t commit, offtake stayed weak, and project financing stalled. A framework like the IMO’s changes the dynamics.

This agreement creates a compelling business case for green fuels. Shipping companies will need to align their businesses with the new rules and face strategic decisions on fuel types.

The framework not only includes emissions from ‘pump-to-engine’, but also considers the entire fuel lifecycle, from ‘well-to-wake’. That means upstream emissions from feedstock extraction, refining, and transportation now count toward a vessel’s compliance status.

This will require full upstream-to-ship emissions tracking and certification. A tough challenge, as fuel supply chains involve a wide range of feedstocks, often sourced from distant geographies with many different regulations. It is therefore almost impossible to build a unified and evidence-based data layer that covers the full supply chain, or, as Flore de Durfort says, “The new IMO rules create the need to finally connect the dots”.

Atmen and Swiss Climate join forces to connect the dots

That’s exactly what Atmen and Swiss Climate are now working to deliver.

Swiss Climate is a recognized leader in emissions reporting and verification for ships and fleets through its digital emission reporting platform MRV Cockpit, covering the downstream segment of the value chain. Atmen’s Automate platform specializes in upstream compliance modeling and fuel certification.

In light of the need for a solution that captures the sustainability of the entire value chain, from natural resources all the way to the vessel’s tank, Swiss Climate and Atmen join forces to build the first infrastructure layer that integrates upstream and downstream data for green fuels. For Atmen and Swiss Climate, this is a perfect one-plus-one-equals-three scenario. 

“Together, we can go faster, cover more ground, and offer the market something no one else can: true end-to-end infrastructure for Green Fuel compliance”, says Flore de Durfort. With full-chain accountability, the shipping sector is becoming a global test case for how carbon pricing and digital infrastructure can drive a real decarbonization shift.  

‍

“FuelEu, EU-ETS regulations and now the new IMO decarbonization targets create a complex regulatory environment that all market participants from fuel producers to bunker traders and ship owners, managers and charterers have to navigate which only fully digitalized solutions can accomplish: “This is what Atmen and Swiss Climate provide”, says Philipp Ahrenkiel, Founder and Co-CEO of Swiss Climate.

Jan Herberg, Partner of Swiss Climate adds: “Facing the future challenges for the maritime industry and the practical implications of GHG emission regulations, we see the alliance between Atmen and Swiss Climate as the ideal basis for developing new, future-prove digital solutions that will enable the industry to cope with the emission management efficiently. We are really looking forward to a fruitful cooperation and are more than happy to support the market on its way through the green transition.”

‍