Lindsey Keeble to Chair New Poseidon Principles Advisory Council

Maritime lawyer Lindsey Keeble, managing partner at Watson Farley & Williams (WFW), has been appointed chair of the new Poseidon Principles advisory council, the initiative that sets the climate alignment framework for ship finance. The announcement was made on November 9, 2026.

The body is made up of 16 members drawn from various sectors of the shipping industry, including Angeliki Frangou of Navios, Bing Chen of Seaspan, Martin Fruergaard of Pacific Basin, Andreas Enger of Höegh Autoliners and Achilleas Tasioulas of GasLog, as well as representatives from Star Bulk, DNV, Knutsen, Cargill and MOL Europe. The council will meet two to three times a year, and its members will serve two-year terms running through 2028.

The Poseidon Principles were launched in June 2019 by 11 founding financial institutions and today bring together 36 signatory institutions, representing roughly three-quarters of global ship finance, including Citi, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, ING, DNB and Standard Chartered. The framework requires signatories to assess and annually disclose the climate alignment of their finance portfolios with the IMO's greenhouse gas reduction targets, based on four principles: climate alignment assessment, accountability, enforcement and transparency.

According to Keeble, the council will help keep the principles practical, relevant and effective as shipping advances through its energy transition, with an emphasis on transparency, accountability and collaboration. The creation of the council also coincides with the association's intention to broaden its scope beyond emissions, incorporating crew welfare as a future priority.

According to the sixth annual Poseidon Principles disclosure report, published in December 2025, the 35 signatories that reported achieved an average portfolio coverage of approximately 95%, up from about 93% the previous year, while the average deviation from the IMO's minimum emissions reduction trajectory narrowed by nearly eight percentage points year-on-year, although combined portfolios are still not fully aligned with that trajectory.