Half of shipping finance now covered by Poseidon Principles

Major banks and other financial institutions across Europe, Japan, Singapore and the US with shipping portfolios to the tune of $185 billion have signed up to Poseidon Principles emissions reporting since it was launched in 2019.

PHOTO: Citi’s Michael Parker was re-elected as chair of the Poseidon Principles Steering Committee last month. Poseidon Principles

The Poseidon Principles is a framework for financial institutions to measure and report carbon emissions in their shipping portfolios publicly.

By signing up, financial institutions commit to yearly reporting of how their shipping portfolios compare to the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. The idea is to map out emissions and incentivise measures to peak emissions as quickly as possible.

The IMO has set a goal of halving GHG emissions from ships by 2050, with 2008 as a baseline. There are ongoing discussions to make this goal more ambitious and more aligned with the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels.

A revised IMO GHG strategy is up for adoption next year.

German savings bank DekaBank has become the latest signatory to the Poseidon Principles.

DekaBank’s head of specialised lending, Marco Albers, says the bank set up a scorecard system for shipping emissions, and that signing up to the Poseidon Principles will help it monitor global decarbonisation targets up against its portfolio.

Other European signatories have headquarters in the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Italy and the UK.