Blue waters, green vessels: Three ways ING is helping shipping to become more sustainable
The shipping industry, responsible for transporting over 80% of the world's traded goods, faces significant challenges in reducing its carbon footprint. As a financier of top-tier international ship owners, ING wants to play a leading role in accelerating transition to a low-carbon future. We aim to do this in three ways: by engaging with our clients, financing their transitions to net zero, and collaborating with others to drive wider change.
We engage with our clients for a sustainable shipping future
We are in continuous dialogue with our shipping clients to promote sustainable practices and support them in their efforts to drive down their emissions. By focusing on the top tier ship owners, our clients are well-positioned to minimise their environmental impact, for example by investing in the latest energy-saving technologies, and operational measures, such as effective route planning and speed reduction.
“While modern vessels tend to be less emission intensive by design, prudent operations and investments go a long way in reducing the carbon footprint of existing vessels and extending their operating lives” – Stephen Fewster, ING’s global head of Shipping.
We finance the path to net zero: retrofitting and alternative fuels
Of course, as a bank, of the main ways we can contribute to decarbonisation of the shipping industry is by providing financial solutions that enable our shipping clients to transition to net zero. This includes financing the retrofitting of existing vessels with energy-saving technologies and investing in low or zero-carbon fuels, such as bio-methane and green methanol. We are also enhancing our risk appetite to finance new types of assets, such as CO2 carriers, which will be crucial for the global energy transition.
“Our aim is to be the catalyst to enable the industry to decarbonise.” – Stephen Fewster
We play our part in driving a wider change
Collaboration is essential for driving widespread change in the shipping sector. Fostering partnerships and sharing knowledge helps to create a unified approach to tackling the environmental challenges faced by the shipping industry. ING participates in regulatory bodies and industry associations, and our involvement in multi-stakeholder dialogues and regulatory frameworks, such as the IMO's climate alignment measures, allows us to influence and support the development of industry-wide standards.
As a signatory to the Poseidon Principles, a global framework for responsible ship finance, ING’s shipping portfolio is aligned with the decarbonisation trajectories of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to reach net zero emissions by or around 2050.
Additionally, we’re the only commercial bank in the Silk Alliance, an initiative involving stakeholders across the entire shipping value chain working to reduce emissions and drive demand for green fuels, incentivising fuel producers to scale up production.
“Shipping is no stranger to transformation, having moved from wind propulsion to steam and eventually to internal combustion engines within a century. So, the foundations are very much there for the industry to successfully manage the energy transition. The biggest question is the pace at which the fuel mix of the future will take shape and scale up. I’m confident we’ll arrive at that answer soon enough.” – Stephen Fewster
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Society is transitioning to a low-carbon economy. So are our clients, and so is ING. We finance a lot of sustainable activities, but we still finance more that’s not. See how we’re progressing on our climate approach.
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