GCMD and Development Bank of Japan Partner to Accelerate Maritime Decarbonisation Finance

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) has announced a five-year Impact partnership with the Development Bank of Japan Inc. (DBJ) to advance the deployment of maritime decarbonisation technologies through innovative financing solutions.

The partnership combines GCMD’s expertise in conducting real-world technology pilots with DBJ’s experience in transition finance and maritime investment, aiming to overcome financial barriers that have slowed the adoption of low-carbon technologies across the shipping industry.

Building on the FEET Initiative

The collaboration builds on the organisations’ work through the US$35 million Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies (FEET), the world’s first financing programme for vessel energy-efficiency retrofits using a pay-as-you-save model.

Under the FEET structure, lease payments for retrofit technologies are linked directly to verified fuel savings, helping reduce investment risks for shipowners while improving access to financing.

DBJ serves as the fund’s preferred equity provider and played a key role in designing its financing framework by leveraging its experience in maritime investments.

Supporting Energy-Efficiency Retrofits

Improving vessel energy efficiency remains one of the most effective short-term strategies for reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the adoption of energy-efficiency technologies (EETs) continues to face challenges, including:

• Uncertainty over technology performance
• Difficulty verifying fuel savings
• Limited access to commercial financing

According to GCMD, FEET addresses these barriers by linking financing directly to measured operational performance.

Since its launch, the fund has established a pipeline of retrofit projects covering multiple vessel types, shipowners and energy-efficiency technologies.

GCMD is also conducting pilot projects that collect high-frequency operational data to improve the verification of fuel savings across a broader range of retrofit solutions.

Innovative Financing Recognised

GCMD, DBJ and their consortium partners recently received Marine Money’s Wild Card East Deal Award in recognition of FEET’s innovative financing structure.

The programme was recognised for helping bridge the long-standing gap between operational performance data and financing, a challenge that has limited wider investment in energy-efficiency technologies across the shipping sector.

Expanding Transition Finance

As Japan’s national development bank, DBJ has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its investment and lending portfolios by 2050.

Its appointment as a GCMD Impact partner follows the organisation’s earlier Knowledge partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and represents another step in expanding GCMD’s collaboration with financial institutions.

GCMD said strengthening partnerships with banks and investors will be critical to mobilising the capital required to accelerate maritime decarbonisation.

Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of GCMD, said the partnership extends the organisations’ successful collaboration through FEET and highlights that shipping’s decarbonisation challenge requires both technological innovation and new financing models.

DBJ said joining GCMD as an Impact partner will allow it to contribute to the practical deployment of decarbonisation solutions while supporting greater collaboration across the international maritime sector.