A group of leading banks will for the first time include efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions in their decisionmaking when providing shipping company loans, executives said yesterday.
International shipping accounts for 2.2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) has a long-term goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from 2008 levels by 2050.
Working with non-profit organizations the Global Maritime Forum, the Rocky Mountain Institute and London University’s UCL Energy Institute, 11 banks have established a framework to measure the carbon intensity of shipping finance portfolios.
Photo: AFP
The banks involved in the “Poseidon Principles” initiative, which will set a common baseline to assess whether lending portfolios are in line or behind the adopted climate goals set by the IMO, represent about a fifth or US$100 billion of the total global shipping finance portfolio.
The results are to be published annually in individual sustainability reports and the data would be obtained by banks from borrowers under existing loan agreements.
“We are helping the shipping industry emerge into the 21st century in a responsible way,” said Michael Parker, global head of shipping at Citigroup Inc.
Those involved so far are Citigroup, Societe Generale SA, DNB ASA, ABN Amro Group NV, Amsterdam Trade Bank, Credit Agricole CIB, Danish Ship Finance A/S, Danske Bank A/S, DVB Bank SE, ING Groep NV and Nordea Bank AB.
Banks will in the longer term be more selective about which ships they include in their lending portfolios, bankers said.
“Will there be companies that will find it difficult to get finance as they have less efficient ships, yes, it will be a consequence of it — but it’s not going to be used to look for those companies and somehow find a way of getting them out,” Parker said.
Danske Bank global head of shipping Oivind Haraldsen said more institutions would join the efforts to cut the carbon footprint of the sector.
“All of us have to push — we as banks probably have more power than we are aware,” he said.
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS