Banks Lending $100 Billion to Shipping Get Strict on Climate - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-17/shipping-banks-with-100-billion-in-loans-get-strict-on-climate
• Lenders agree principles to limit funding for dirty ships
• Emission targets in industry seen tightening in 2023
A group of financiers with $100 billion of loans to shipowners are about to get stricter on the kinds of vessels they’ll finance as part of a drive to improve the maritime industry’s environmental performance.
Eleven major financiers including Citigroup Inc. and Societe Generale SA are for the first time adopting a set of principles requiring them to maintain their lending books in a way that matches goals in the Paris climate agreement, as well as related targets adopted by global regulator the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization.
It means banks will favor financing of cleaner vessels while shying away from those carriers that are more polluting. The shift will potentially help to tighten a well-supplied freight market that’s depressed rates, said Michael Parker, global head of shipping & logistics at Citigroup.