Innovation Norway offers green shipping funding

The scheme, which has total funding of NOK470 million (US$44.1m) for 2023 for risk-based loans for green investments in short-sea shipping, was launched on 31 August. The scheme envisages a maximum loan of NOK10m for each individual customer. 

The loans can be used either for the zero- and low-emission newbuildings or for retrofit and conversion projects to reduce emissions from existing tonnage. 

Innovation Norway identified a number of short-sea ships that will qualify for the scheme, including bulk carriers, tankers, chemical carriers, general cargo ships and container ships, as well as offshore vessels, ferries and high-speed ferries. The scheme will also be open for applications from the fishing and aquaculture sectors.

The government noted that Innovation Norway will be able to consider applications related to other ship types on a case-by-case basis to determine whether they can qualify for loans within the scope of the scheme.

The eligibility criteria include registration in one of Norway’s two ship registers, NOR or NIS, (or Norway’s national fishing vessel register) while the vessel must either operate between ports in Norway, or serve routes between Norwegian and European ports. Projects that have already commenced will not be eligible for consideration.

The risk-based loan scheme represents an extension of the scope of a previous Risk Loan Scheme for Norway’s short-sea and fishing sectors established in 2020. The extension of the Loan Scheme to cover green shipping was approved by Norway’s parliament on 16 June 2023.

The link to the scheme is available here (in Norwegian).