Today: Proposal for shipowners to pay a fee for their carbon emissions put on ice after U.S. criticism; West Virginia's plan for plugging dead oil and gas wells; HR pros pull out of industry event over invite to anti-DEI activist.

Welcome back: A United Nations-backed plan to decarbonize the shipping industry was put on ice Friday amid fierce opposition from the Trump administration, the WSJ's Ed Ballard and Costas Paris report.

Under the plan, shipowners would have to pay a fee for their carbon emissions in a bid to spur investment in low-carbon fuels and ships that run on them. Nations had been scheduled to vote on ratifying the plan this week, but the ballot was postponed for a year after a lobbying campaign from the U.S.

“The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form,” President Trump said in a social-media post Thursday.

The U.S. threatened countries that endorsed the International Maritime Organization’s net-zero plan with retaliatory measures, including sanctions on officials, visa restrictions, port fees and blocking vessels from American ports.

The vote’s postponement casts doubt on the future of what was shaping up to be the most ambitious emissions-cutting strategy agreed upon by an entire sector of the global economy.

West Virginia announced a first-of-its-kind fund aimed at one of the thorniest environmental issues plaguing America’s oil-and-gas-producing regions, the WSJ's David Uberti writes.

The Mountain State Plugging Fund is designed to retire roughly 20,000 wells in the coming decades at no cost to taxpayers, limiting the chances that old infrastructure will contaminate groundwater or leak planet-warming methane into the air.

Diversified Energy, one of America’s largest owners of natural-gas wells, said it would plow $70 million into the fund over the next 20 years in the hope that those holdings grow to as much as $650 million through compounding interest and returns. The company agreed to retire at least 1,500 wells while it establishes the fund, and at least 250 annually after that.

Human-resources professionals are pulling out of their marquee conference on inclusion and some have canceled their memberships in SHRM, the industry’s chief lobbying group, after the organization invited conservative activist Robby Starbuck to speak, the WSJ's Ray A. Smith writes.

Starbuck, the driving force behind online campaigns to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, has prompted companies including Walmart, Harley-Davidson and Tractor Supply to abandon or dial back their DEI efforts. His status as a headline guest for an industry that has for years made DEI policies in Corporate America a central plank of its platform is a sign of just how quickly companies have reversed course on those practices.

Tell me what you think: Send me your feedback and suggestions at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com or reply to any newsletter. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up here.

• LEGO Group to phase out natural gas at its production sites to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions footprint. (ESG Today)
   
• Constellation Energy has the power that AI needs. The CEO is making the most of it. (Barron's)
   
• L’Oreal is pushing to replace petrochemicals—widely used in cosmetics for their moisturizing properties—by relying on plants. (Trellis)
   
• Companies should prepare for greater climate risk exposure as the cost of weather-related disasters increases. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• U.S. bank regulators have dropped guidance telling large banks to home in on climate issues. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• Extreme heat events have risen in the decade since the Paris accord as CO₂ stays at record, studies say. (FT)
   
• The European Union will offer development funding to countries affected by the bloc's carbon border tariff, it said. (Reuters)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.