The IMO is the United Nations’ specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine and atmospheric pollution by ships. The IMO approved an Initial greenhouse gas (GHG) Strategy in April 2018 to reduce GHG emissions generated by shipping activity. This Initial Strategy sets out the following levels of ambition:

1. to reduce the total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008;
2. to reduce CO₂ emissions per transport work by at least 40% by 2030, pursuing efforts towards 70% by 2050 compared to 2008.

According to the IMO, the shipping industry’s governing body, the sector currently accounts for 2.89% of global anthropogenic emissions. Left unchecked, shipping emissions are expected to grow by 90-130% by 2050 (IMO, 2020).

While CO₂ represented almost all of the industry’s GHG emissions (98%), methane (CH₄) emissions from ships increased over this period (particularly over 2009–2012) due to increased activity associated with the transport of gaseous cargoes by liquefied gas tankers due to methane slip. There is potential for this trend to continue in the future if shipping moves to liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ships.

Nations pledged in the 2015 Paris Agreement “to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHG in the second half of this century”. This means getting to “net zero emissions” between 2050 and 2100. 2050 therefore represents a key milestone in the Paris Agreement, which the IMO explicitly references in its Strategy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has quantified this target through a specific limit to a global temperature rise due to anthropogenic emissions of not more than 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.

The Strategy does not alone secure 1.5°C or clearly show that efforts have been pursued to achieve this. Immediate measures to implement the Strategy will be required to urgently peak and reduce GHG emissions in line with 1.5°C. IMO MEPC meetings in 2023 will be crucial to updating the Strategy and putting more ambitious measures for rapid reduction of GHG emissions in place.

The objective is to organize a group of aligned and committed financial institutions to take ownership of a set of principles to integrate climate considerations into lending decisions in ship finance, consistent with the climate-related goals of the IMO.

The Principles aim to be voluntary, practical to implement, verifiable, fact-based, and effective. Signatories commit to implementing the Principles in their internal policies, procedures and standards.

The Principles are intended to evolve over time following a regular review process to ensure that the Principles are practical and effective, are linked to and support the IMO’s GHG measures developed through 2023, and that further environmental factors are identified for inclusion.

Climate alignment is currently the only environmental factor considered by the Poseidon Principles. This scope will be reviewed and may be expanded by Signatories on a timeline that is at their discretion.

The Poseidon Principles are applicable to lenders, relevant lessors, and financial guarantors including export credit agencies. The Poseidon Principles must be applied by Signatories in all Business Activities that are:

1.  credit products—including bilateral loans, syndicated loans, club deals, and guarantees—secured by vessel mortgages or finance leases secured by title over vessel, or unmortgaged ECA loans tied to a vessel,
2.  where a vessel or vessels fall under the purview of the IMO Data Collection System (DCS) (i.e., vessels 5,000 gross tonnage and above trading on international voyages). This would include offshore vessels that meet those criteria as well.

The scope of financial products will be reviewed and may be expanded by Signatories on a timeline that is at their discretion.

The Poseidon Principles were launched on 18 June 2019.

Workshops and presentations were held in 2018 across Singapore, London, NYC, and Hong Kong to elicit feedback from approximately 20 financial institutions on the development of the Poseidon Principles. The development of the Poseidon Principles was led by a drafting group spearheaded by global shipping banks – Citi, Société Générale, and DNB – in collaboration with leading industry players – A.P.Møller Mærsk, Cargill, Euronav, Gram Car Carriers, Lloyd’s Register and Watson Farley & Williams – with expert support provided by the Global Maritime Forum, Rocky Mountain Institute and University College London Energy Institute.

Shipowners of varying sizes and geographies have been engaged and consulted throughout the process of developing the Poseidon Principles.

A first draft was presented and discussed at a session held in conjunction with the Global Maritime Forum’s Annual Summit in Hong Kong in October 2018. Participants there welcomed the Principles with great enthusiasm.

The Global Maritime Forum, Rocky Mountain Institute, and University College London have been part of this work since its inception. They have also been working with other financial initiatives – such as 2 Degrees Investing and the Climate Bonds Initiative – to ensure that various initiatives within the shipping sector are compatible.

A broader group of NGOs and other stakeholders have been kept informed throughout the process.

The Poseidon Principles for Marine Insurance were developed later (December 2021) and were strongly inspired by the Poseidon Principles. The four core Principles are the same for both the Poseidon Principle and the Poseidon Principles for Marine Insurance and both initiatives also use the same metric – AER. The Poseidon Principles for Marine Insurance, however, have also chosen to take steps toward alignment with the Paris Agreement by providing two trajectories: the 50% CO₂ reduction trajectory used by the PPA, and a 100% CO₂ reduction trajectory. Another initiative similar to the Poseidon Principles is the Sea Cargo Charter – a framework for responsible chartering. The ambition to develop the Sea Cargo Charter finds its source is the very early stages of the Poseidon Principles. The four core Principles are the same for both the Poseidon Principles and the Sea Cargo Charter, but the two frameworks rely on different metrics. The Poseidon Principles uses AER and can therefore rely on the IMO DCS to collect data, while the Sea Cargo Charter uses EEOI and thus have a different approach to source data.

Institutions wishing to become a Signatory of the Poseidon Principles must submit the Standard Declaration together with the Signatory Application and the Membership Agreement to the Secretariat of the Poseidon Principles Association. Once accepted into the Association, the Signatory will have five months to complete and submit the Signatory Self-Assessment to the Secretariat. All documents are available from the Secretariat.

The Standard Declaration is the formal commitment required of financial institutions to become a Signatory. It announces the intent of the financial institution to follow all requirements of the Principles. The Standard Declaration is available from the Secretariat.

The third document an organization must submit in order to become a Signatory to the Poseidon Principles is the Membership Agreement. This document outlines legal obligations for Signatories. The Membership Agreement is available on the website.

The purpose of the Self-Assessment is to ensure that each Signatory has made appropriate arrangements to fulfil its obligations under the Poseidon Principles and identified any challenges to doing so. The Self-Assessment is as brief as possible to reduce the administrative burden, while still addressing the core responsibilities of Signatories to the Poseidon Principles. The questions focus on ensuring that Signatories are aware of timelines and obligations under the Poseidon Principles, have engaged internal stakeholders, have engaged clients, and have a plan for engaging the necessary service providers to complete their climate alignment assessment. The Self-Assessment questions are available from the Secretariat.

The Signatory Fee for 2022 is € 10,000 and is paid to the Poseidon Principles Association when becoming a Signatory.

The Annual Fee for 2022 is € 7,500 and is paid annually to the Poseidon Principles Association in accordance to the Governance Rules. In the first year, the Annual Fee is required in addition to the Signatory Fee.

The Poseidon Principles were developed in recognition financial institutions’ role in promoting responsible environmental stewardship throughout the maritime value chain. Signatories will be recognized for contributing to an initiative that is ground-breaking in both the spheres of shipping and sustainable finance. Furthermore, Signatories will also gain access to valuable asset-level information that can be used to assess potential climate risks that may impair returns in the future.

Currently, there is not an official way to endorse or formally support the Poseidon Principles. Please contact the Poseidon Principles Secretariat to register your interest so that you can be contacted should a pathway for endorsement become available.

The “preferred pathway” information flow in the Poseidon Principles methodology recommends the use of verification mechanisms (from third parties/service providers) to maintain data veracity. While the Poseidon Principles recognize the important role that verification mechanisms play in providing unbiased information to the industry, the Poseidon Principles Secretariat does not formally endorse any service provider.

Signatories are free to work with any third party/service provider of their choice. It is their responsibility to ensure that the provider performs services for them using the latest available Poseidon Principles methodology.

In shipping, carbon intensity represents the total operational emissions generated to complete one unit of transport work, which is measured in grams of CO₂ per ton-nautical miles. For the Poseidon Principles, this is measured using a carbon intensity measure known as Average Efficiency Ratio (AER), which is reported in unit grams of CO₂ per dwt-nm (gCO₂/dwt-nm). The IMO DCS enables the calculation of the AER, thus ensuring that the Poseidon Principles are consistent with the IMO’s regulations.

In the context of the Poseidon Principles, a decarbonization trajectory is a representation of how many grams of CO₂ a single ship can emit to move one tonne of goods one nautical mile (gCO₂/tnm) over a time horizon to be in line with the IMO’s minimum threshold of 50% absolute emissions reduction.

The IMO’s Strategy refers to GHG emissions for its absolute reduction but carbon intensity for its relative target. There is no reason for this distinction. The Poseidon Principles derive its trajectory using an absolute carbon emissions reduction. While this is a proxy for GHG emissions, it is the dominant source of GHG emissions in shipping. In the future, other GHG emissions could be included in scope.

The overall decarbonization trajectory is applied to each vessel category’s baseline value at 2012 providing specific values for each ship type and size because carbon intensities vary as a function of ship type and size, as well as a ship’s technical and operational specification. The trajectory is used to help measure the alignment of vessels, products, and the portfolio of Signatories.

The Secretariat and official Advisors of the Poseidon Principles Association will produce and provide standard decarbonization trajectory for each ship type-class and size for Signatories, based on agreed and clearly stated assumptions. The trajectory is based on the most up to date data source of the IMO-recognized information and will be updated once new information becomes available.

It is produced in a format that allows for simple weighting aggregation. This is to ensure that once the carbon intensity of vessels is understood, it is simple and practical to understand climate alignment. This also ensures that numbers are comparable between Signatories.

The trajectory is consistent with the IMO Strategy’s minimum threshold of a 50% reduction of absolute carbon emissions in international shipping. This does not alone secure the Paris Agreement’s well below 2°C global mandate and efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C.

The Poseidon Principles establish a framework for the assessment of climate alignment and disclosure of ship finance portfolios. It does not provide solutions for how to achieve climate alignment. It is the responsibility of Signatories to determine how they choose to improve their portfolio performance.

Broadly speaking, however, to improve a portfolio’s score, it is necessary to reduce the carbon intensity of the vessels that underlie the portfolio relative to their respective decarbonization trajectory. In the short-term to medium term (i.e., 1-5 years), for most sectors – especially for ships which travel on long haul routes – the most commercially viable solutions for reducing carbon intensity are through speed reduction and energy efficiency technologies. Over the longer term (e.g., in 10 years), the sector will need to use increasing quantities of energy and fuel which produce lower GHG emissions when used on board. Options include harvesting of renewable energy on board (wind propulsion, solar, wave), bioenergy, battery energy storage, synthetic or e-fuels (sometimes also called power-to-liquid or power-to-gas), made from renewable electricity or fossil fuel sources in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

These options are at varying levels of readiness and use. For example, solar has been in use for supplementing auxiliary power for some time. Wind assistance technologies have been in use for some time on several sea going ships, as has battery energy storage and biofuel. Some of these options have yet to be deployed for deep sea shipping operation (for example bioenergy and synthetic/e-fuels) but are already deployed and in operation for short sea shipping. Their application for deep sea shipping use is the subject of intense RD&D effort, and their potential availability is expected over the coming decade.

Signatories can engage with clients to identify ways to bring down carbon intensity or they could rebalance their shipping portfolio over time towards parts of the sector that are more climate-aligned or towards technologies that are climate-aligned (e.g., lower-carbon fuels).

Different fuels have a different CO₂ emissions factor, and this is reflected in the calculation of fuel consumption to CO₂ emissions.

Any improvements undertaken by the owner in terms of efficiency (design or operational) will be reflected in the fuel consumption and hence in the data/score.

Much like other operational efficiency measures, this will result in reduced fuel consumption and hence be reflected in the data/score of the vessel.

Older vessels may have a higher fuel consumption, which in turn would be reflected in the vessel’s AER.

Signatory to the Poseidon Principles needs to obtain the IMO data and a Statement of Compliance / Verification Letter either directly from a shipowner or from a Recognized Organization (upon the consent of the shipowner). The consent for the RO to share IMO DCS data with the Signatory can be given through the standard covenant clause. If the data is requested directly from a shipowner, Signatories are advised to ask for data “as it was submitted to the IMO” to reduce risk of error.

There is a Data Collection Template that Signatories are free to use for this process.

The CO₂ conversion factor is set by the IMO.

It is the same as used in other IMO regulatory mechanisms (e.g., EEDI).

The source of the data is from direct operations from the ship using the methodology provided by the IMO DCS. Therefore, the data is not adjusted, rather it is as provided by vessel for mandatory purposes.

The IMO DCS is mandatory and has gone into effect in January 2019. Shipowners who do not comply within the timeframe set by the IMO will not have a Statement of Compliance which will affect their license to operate. In other words, it is not availability of data but rather access to the data for these purposes that will be of primary concern for Signatories. It is the assessment of the law firm WFW that lenders are within their rights under existing loan agreements to demand disclosure of data necessary to comply with the Poseidon Principles.

Nonetheless, the Poseidon Principles do take into account that in some circumstances, collecting the necessary data may not be possible. In this instance, Signatories will be required to disclose the percentage of the eligible loan book for which there is non-disclosure. This information will be available to other Signatories but will not be publicly disclosed.

An external audit is not a requirement of the Poseidon Principles. However, in practice, some banks will choose to have an independent assessment in line with their other reporting activities.

Signatories to the Poseidon Principles are expected to comply with both the Accountability and Transparency requirements. Altogether, these are:

a.     The overall climate alignment of the Signatory’s shipping portfolio reported as a +/- percentage figure;
b.     The percentage of eligible shipping portfolio that is non-reporting;
c.     The percentage of portfolio for which preferred and allowed pathway tracks were used;
d.     A list of the providers it used.

All information will be shared privately with other Signatories. Thus, if a Signatory make all calculations on their own, they will have to report that to the Secretariat, which will share this information with other Signatories. Only the portfolio alignment score will be made public.

It is the opinion of WFW that typically lenders will be well within their rights to ask their clients for this information. However, it is recognized that collecting 100% of relevant data may not be possible in some circumstances.

In this instance, Signatories will be required to disclose the percentage of their eligible loan book for which they have non-disclosure. This information will be available to other Signatories. Please see Table 3 in the technical guidance of the Poseidon Principles for an example of this.

If there are significant inconsistencies, it will fall to the governance system to determine how to address the issue. This is to preserve the integrity and legitimacy of the Principles, as we expect this percentage to improve over time.

No, there is no minimum threshold but Signatories are required to disclose the percentage of their eligible loan book for which they have non-disclosure. This percentage is calculated against % of Signatory’s debt in portfolio and gets published in the Annual Disclosure Report alongside Signatory’s climate alignment score.

Several Signatories ran a pilot. If you wish to run a test, please contact the Secretariat for further information.

A common portal to share data is currently under consideration. Under this scheme, classification societies would pool data and banks would be able to access the data for the vessels in their portfolio regardless of which classification society it is covered by. This would remove most of the cost and effort in reporting and having to use multiple ROs.

The only procedure that would still be up to each Signatory is taking the intensity measure and applying it to each loan as relevant. That can of course be outsourced to an RO, but that would be at a cost agreed between the Signatory and the RO.

Classification societies are members of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) and as such can work together to share the data (and have done so in other contexts).

Lenders are within their rights under most current loan covenants to demand disclosure of data necessary to comply with the initial Poseidon Principles. It was at the request of shipowners in the drafting group that the Poseidon Principles should include a standardized covenant clause covering the more specific information so that they do not have to negotiate similar wording with every lender.

While the covenant wording is strongly recommended, it is not compulsory for Signatories. However, if all Signatories start using it in new loan agreements it will de facto be in common usage. There is no suggestion that existing loan agreements should be amended.

The Standard covenant clause is available on the website.

As a Signatory of the Poseidon Principles, the reporting requirements are:

• The overall climate alignment of a Signatory’s shipping portfolio reported as a +/- percentage figure.
• The percentage of eligible shipping portfolio that is non-reporting.
• The percentage of portfolio for which preferred and allowed pathway tracks were used.
• A list of the names of providers it used.

Only the Signatory’s overall climate alignment score and their non-reporting percentage will be published. All other information listed above will be shared with other Signatories but will not be made public. For further details see the Transparency section of the Technical Guidance or the Signatory Reporting Template on the website.

Every effort has been made to minimize the reporting requirements of the Poseidon Principles themselves. While it is required that Signatories include their portfolio climate alignment figure in relevant institutional reports (e.g., sustainability reports), the Poseidon Principles do not interact with any other reporting initiatives.

The Poseidon Principles Association publishes the portfolio climate alignment scores of Signatories on its website in a report which provides some context in order to put the scores alignment score in perspective and correctly interpret them.

The previous reports can be found on the website.

Signatories are required to publish their portfolio climate alignment in relevant institutional reports (e.g., sustainability report) on a timeline that is appropriate for them. There is, however, nothing to stop individual Signatories to publish their climate alignment at a more granular level, for example by vessels categories.

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is comprised of 8 to 12 representatives of Signatories to the Poseidon Principles. One member acts as Chair, one member as Vice Chair, one member as Treasurer. Steering Committee members hold a senior position in their companies relevant for the Poseidon Principles. The Steering Committee leads the Association’s meetings. Members of the Steering Committee are volunteers and are therefore not compensated by the Association. The list of members currently part of the Steering Committee can be found on the website.

Signatories

All Signatories are members of the Poseidon Principles Association and are encouraged to participate in and contribute to the management of the Association in a manner that supports the Principles and is appropriate for their institution. Those institutions who have become Signatories will appoint a senior representative to join relevant meetings of the Association, such as the Annual Meeting. Just as with the Steering Committee, the representative must hold a position relevant to the Poseidon Principles. Signatories can nominate a representative from their institution to become a member of the Steering Committee. Nominees are then voted into positions by all Signatories and serve a term in the Steering Committee as outlined in the Governance Rules.

Technical Committee

Signatories previously agreed to establish the Technical Committee. Its role is to ensure methodological integrity of the Poseidon Principles within the scope agreed by the Steering Committee. The Technical Committee does not have decision-making power; it formulates proposals which are then brought up to Signatories. The Technical Committee is composed of a subset of Signatories and is supported by the Advisory and Secretariat. Technical Committee members must hold appropriate technical background.

Secretariat

The role of the Secretariat is to maintain the day-to-day business and administration of the Steering Committee, Principles, and the Signatories. The Secretariat serves a facilitating function in the Steering Committee, Technical Committee, and among Signatories. The Secretariat role can be fulfilled by a relevant non-profit and independent third-party entity. This role is currently fulfilled by the Global Maritime Forum.

Advisory

The Advisory advises and guides the technical discussions and expertise of the Principles, including creating and revising the scope of the Principles or the decarbonization trajectory. It ensures the used methodology and data found in the Principles are current, relevant, and simple to implement for Signatories. The Advisory is also involved in working groups and takes part in the Steering Committee or Technical Committee meetings as needed.

Current technical advisors are UMAS and Rocky Mountain Institute.