“The financial market focus is changing, and banks are already assessing their clients’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and what they plan to do to their business models and ships. From a client’s point of view, they will have to be asking themselves: what are the best proactive steps we can take to improve our ships’ efficiency, and what will be the impact on us if we don’t do anything?” Holth went on to add “we will see how companies handle new requirements and have a continuing dialogue. Clearly this is not an overnight business, but clients not taking the environmental challenge seriously will have to think through the consequences. Capital will, over time, tend towards those having a responsible business.”
Class societies, he suggested, should play a key role in helping investors and lenders decide how and what to finance. Where capital goes in the future is extremely important and the societies are well-placed to identify the most promising of the new technologies, he said. Accompanied by previous LR and UMAS studies, including Low Carbon Pathways 2050 and Zero-Emission Vessels 2030, LR is uniquely positioned to provide expertise to the Signatories of the Poseidon Principles, ensuring that lending decisions protect and help those who are planning to finance, design or build a ship in the 2020s and who will need to consider how their ships can switch to non-fossil fuel later in its operational life.
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