European financiers and lawyers have been debating whether the Poseidon Principles can succeed without Asian support.

But Chinese leasing houses have told TradeWinds that the big obstacle to signing up to the green shipping finance initiative is not institutional conservatism or resist­ance to environmental progress. The hold-up is that nobody has invited them to join.

“I can confirm that,” said an ­executive of Shanghai’s Bank of Communications Financial Leasing (Bocomm Leasing), which is one of the two biggest ship finance lessors, along with Beijing’s ICBC Leasing.