Swedbank sets emission reduction target for shipping portfolio

The average emission intensity of its shipping portfolio should be halved by 2030, compared to 2022 levels, Stockholm-based banking group Swedbank announced.

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“The new target means that, by 2030, the financed emission intensity of Swedbank’s shipping portfolio will be aligned with the most ambitious decarbonisation pathway of the International Maritime Organization (IMO),” the bank said.   

The target will apply to the bank’s “lending to vessels covered by the Poseidon Principles, corresponding to vessels 5,000 gross tonnage and above,” it confirmed.

It has also set a net-zero emissions by 2050 goal for its overall shipping portfolio as part of its alignment with Poseidon Principles.

The Nordic-Baltic lender’s exposure to the shipping sector represents 2% of its overall corporate loan portfolio, Johanna Fager Wettergren, head of group sustainability at Swedbank told ENGINE in March.

Financing shipping’s green dreams

A bank can usually aid shipping companies in reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by financing the adoption and deployment of low- and zero-emission fuels and technologies and other green shipping projects.

“Net-zero fuels, technologies and energy efficiency measures are great examples of areas that we look to pinpoint,” Wettergren explained.

Swedbank offers sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) and green loans as financial instruments to shipping borrowers seeking to decarbonise their maritime operations to stay on a 1.5°C pathway and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

By Konica Bhatt

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