COMMENT: All eyes are on the U.S. Presidential election, being held on November 3rd, writes Barry Parker.
New York, always a “Blue” state, will go for Joe Biden, but it’s a big country out there and many pundits are predicting a close election. Readers have possibly grown tired of learning about candidates’ plans to revitalise the U.S. infrastructure, but it’s important to note that Trump and Biden are both placing importance on it.
Biden has been advocating a vast investment in a greener infrastructure. While Trump’s administration has rolled back certain Obamaera environmental initiatives, the path forward may show surprising commonality rather than polar opposites.
Indeed, Trump’s actions banning drilling off Florida’s Gulf Coast (extending an existing ban) and instituting a similar ban in Florida’s Atlantic coastal waters, and those of Georgia and South Carolina, are very telling.
So, whichever candidate wins, the Red side (Republicans) or the Blue side (I am not picking a side here), “Green” considerations will dominate, on the money front and in terms of sustainability.
With the pandemic forcing massive amounts of spending at all levels of government, the reliance on private capital to support infrastructure investment will grow. Within the investment world, capital providers will be sharpening their ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) lenses, accelerating a trend in evidence over the past few years.
In a year of extensive hurricanes and forest fires, the investors’ attention, and the focus on sustainability (by credit rating agencies and financiers alike) will only grow. The port business can find many “win-win” situations here, because their customers – the shipping lines and shipowners (and the next layer of customers – the cargo interests) are all being placed under ESG microscopes.
An area that continues to attract attention is decarbonisation of shipping, as the industry shifts away from traditional fuels. Facilities for LNG fueling, now in the mainstream for deepsea vessels (and viewed as an important fuel on the pathway to reduced carbon emissions), is squarely in the ESG camp.
For short sea and inland trades, the US will be following the lead of Europeans towards electrification and battery power; the money men, the “private” tranche backing capital investments, will also take a favorable look at infrastructure for supplying electrons to the maritime sector.
In 2020, a dim year that many readers surely wish to forget, we can point to the shifting pattern of infrastructure investing as a bright spot.
