The fishing industry is today one of Norway’s most important export industries, with an export value of wild fish of 31.5 billion NOK in 2020. Today, there are about 5 600 fishing vessels in Norway and the industry employs about 11 000 fishermen.
According to Norwegian Statistics (SSB), greenhouse gas emissions from the fishing industry account for approximately 2% of the total Norwegian greenhouse gas emissions.
It is important that emissions from fishing vessels are reduced, and thereby contribute to Norway’s overall target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The finance industry is an important player in Norway’s transition to a low-emission society. Many banks have own targets for net zero emissions from their portfolios and need to team up with their clients to achieve these.
Transition-linked financing is any form for financing where financial terms are linked to achieve stated goals, such as percentage reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Transition-linked financing can play a key role to reduce the emissions in the fishing industry through fleet renewal. Transition-linked financing can increase the profitability of low- and zero-emission solutions through beneficial loan terms, and hence accelerate the green shift in the fishing industry.
The starting point for this pilot is to look at the fishing fleets contribution to reduce climate and environmental emissions, and how the finance sector can influence the companies towards a greener direction. A framework for transition-linked financing has already been developed for the shipping industry, and this pilot will take a similar approach for the fishing fleet.
Goal of pilot project
- Final goal: Deliver advantageous loans to green transition-linked projects for Norway’s fishing fleet.
- Final objective: Define criteria that need to be achieved to qualify for a transition-linked finance loan.
To achieve this, the following working packages are defined:
- Map the fishing fleet’s role in the green shift
- Map the already established rules, frameworks, guidelines etc. for green transition-linked financing
- Define sharp and concise KPI’s
- Define sustainability performance targets (SPT) / threshold values for the fishing fleet
- The EU Taxonomy
Status
The pilot kick-off meeting was completed August 30th 2022, and currently work is being carried out on the different work packages.
Status September 2022: The pilot study is in a very early phase. The work packages have been reviewed, and the different participating partners have registered where they can contribute.
Status October 2022: In the status meeting on October 17th the working groups presented status and temporary results.
Status November 2022: In the status meeting on November 22nd the working groups presented status of their work. We agreed that a first draft report shall be presented in the next status meeting.
The final objective is to define criteria’s that need to be achieved to qualify for a transition-linked finance loan within 6 months.