Poseidon Principles offer a yardstick by which leading ship-financing institutions can demonstrate their commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas impact of the fleets they finance. Poseidon Principles:
- create awareness of the GHG impact of the lending decisions taken
- provide a common target for the intended annual improvement
- underline the commitment of the ship finance community to global GHG reduction targets.
The Poseidon Principles reflect the ambitions of the IMO to reduce shipping’s total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008.
DNV’s maritime advisory experts provide related services to both financial institutions as well as ship owners:

Poseidon Principles Reporting
In order to get Poseidon reporting done in time and to budget for ship financing banks we offer a convenient and safe solution. “Poseidon for Signatories”, our software solution for data collection, storage, processing and preparation of the reports is accessible via our Veracity data platform. Several signatories of the Poseidon Principles rely on our support.
Poseidon Principles Pre-Check
We approximate last year’s emissions and distance sailed of any vessel using our AIS-based consumption model and calculate the KPIs used by the Poseidon Principles: AER (Average Efficiency Ratio) and Vessel Climate Alignment. This ensures transparency on how your portfolio would be rated by the Poseidon Principles.
Poseidon Principles Statement of Fact
We calculate or verify the GHG emissions of a vessel or fleet and calculate the performance against requirements of Poseidon Principles and the EEOI for a defined year or over time. You get a Statement of Fact from a trusted third party for external usage.
The emission data used in the Poseidon Principles calculation can be retrieved in the data sets as provided in the IMO DCS regulations. DNV is a Recognized Organization for IMO DCS and EU MRV verification, which is currently provided for close to 7,000 vessels. The data sets for these ships can be leveraged for the Poseidon Principles reporting if the ship owner/manager consents. And also, the other way around: our DCS portal for ship owners/managers is designed to ease DCS data provision to Poseidon signatories as a self-service including issuance of verification letters.
In addition to our support on the Poseidon Principles and IMO DCS, our advisory experts work for ship financing institutions in many related aspects of green finance, e.g.
- Development of environmental indicators for ship financing
- Annual emission reporting
- Portfolio energy efficiency assessment
- Review of criteria and KPIs for future green financing
- Development of methodology and criteria for new financing decisions