Ship financiers play an important role in the shipping industry's transition to a low carbon economy as they shape the financing terms provided to shipowners and the type of assets that are financed, but their transition-related beliefs are unclear. This paper proposes a novel theoretical framework which categorises financiers during low-carbon transitions into five archetypes. It also provides novel empirical insights on the beliefs and ambitions of shipping financiers regarding their future role and the risks to their assets using semi-structured interviews with ten financiers and two shipowners. The results show that the majority of interviewees expressed an ambition to support incumbent shipowners in the transition, but expressed the need for regulation to ensure financiers properly measure climate risks (e.g. the EU taxonomy and differentiated capital requirements for green and brown assets). This highlights the potential, but also the limits, of voluntary initiatives from financiers to promote green investments.

船舶金融家在航运业向低碳经济转型中发挥着重要作用，因为他们制定了向船东提供的融资条款和融资资产类型，但他们与转型相关的信念尚不清楚。本文提出了一个新颖的理论框架，将低碳转型期间的金融家分为五种原型。它还通过对十名金融家和两名船东的半结构化访谈，提供了关于航运金融家对其未来角色及其资产风险的信念和抱负的新颖的实证见解。结果显示，大多数受访者表达了支持现有船东转型的雄心，但表示需要进行监管以确保金融家正确衡量气候风险（例如欧盟分类法以及对绿色和棕色资产的差异化资本要求）。这凸显了金融家促进绿色投资的自愿举措的潜力，但也存在局限性。