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Greening the shipping sector

28 February 2019 ... min read

Shipping carries more than 90 percent of the world’s trade, accounting for a significant proportion of the global climate change problem. With emissions predicted to increase between 50 and 250% by 2050, it is no surprise that the shipping industry has become the focus of green initiatives, particularly in Europe.

Cargo ship

An example is the €300 million agreement between ING and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support green investments for the shipping sector in Europe.

“Our joint programme with ING shows that greening the transport sector makes business sense, other than just being important for the environment,” said Vazil Hudak, vice-president at EIB.

Signed in 2018, the three-year agreement supports sponsors of sustainable projects in the maritime transport sector with advantageous financial terms.

Today (28 February), marks a new milestone, a €110 million loan agreement with the EIB to finance Dutch shipping company Spliethoff. It enables Spliethoff to install exhaust gas cleaning systems and ballast water management systems on 42 vessels - almost half of its fleet, helping the company to be compliant with the International Maritime Organisaton (IMO), UN’s regulatory agency for shipping.

The retrofitted vessels will operate with significantly reduced emissions of sulphur oxide, known to be harmful to humans.

“We are proud to partner with the EIB to provide financing to Spliethoff to support their transition to a more sustainable business model while also meeting increasing environmental standards,” said Stephen Fewster, head of ING Shipping.

“Sustainability is an important strategic priority for ING. As a bank, we make the most impact through our financing.”

The ING and EIB partnership facility is available for ‘green’ projects that aim to improve the environmental performance of transport vessels by diminishing the emission of pollutants and increasing fuel efficiency. Projects should be proposed to ING and will be subject to ING’s financial and non-financial risk acceptance criteria.


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