Orchestrating transnational environmental governance in maritime shipping

•Maritime shipping is a major contributor to global environmental change.•Sea transport is lagging in effective environmental governance versus onshore industries.•Factors related to the nature of the industry, issues, and interests have caused governance difficulties.•Regulatory fragmentation and uncertainty is increasing through unilateral regional standards and private green shipping initiatives.•The International Maritime Organization has an untapped opportunity to orchestrate private and hybridized governance mechanisms for environmental progress. Maritime shipping is the transmission belt of the global economy. It is also a major contributor to global environmental change through its under-regulated air, water and land impacts. It is puzzling that shipping is a lagging sector as it has a well-established global regulatory body—the International Maritime Organization. Drawing on original empirical evidence and archival data, we introduce a four-factor framework to investigate two main questions: why is shipping lagging in its environmental governance; and what is the potential for the International Maritime Organization to orchestrate emerging private ‘green shipping’ initiatives to achieve better ecological outcomes? Contributing to transnational governance theory, we find that conditions stalling regulatory progress include low environmental issue visibility, poor interest alignment, a broadening scope of environmental issues, and growing regulatory fragmentation and uncertainty. The paper concludes with pragmatic recommendations for the International Maritime Organization to acknowledge the regulatory difficulties and seize the opportunity to orchestrate environmental progress.