The intern will support the Sustainability Group in MAS to deepen our understanding of the real economy’s decarbonisation plans, particularly through the study of sectoral pathways. This could include a deep dive on specific sectors or sub-sectors, such as steel, cement or agriculture.

As part of this work, the intern will support engagement with Financial Institutions, corporates, regulators, and academic experts and pathway modellers.

The intern will also derive and make policy recommendations on how MAS and the Financial Sector can support decarbonisation in the real economy, in line with Singapore’s 2050 Net Zero goals and the Paris Agreement. 

The role of ESG ratings in the financial market ecosystem is growing. At the same time, there are emerging concerns pertaining to this space – for example, there is often a lack of clarity and transparency about the methodologies underpinning ESG ratings and data products, in turn fuelling concerns on the risks of green washing. It is important that investors here have access to ESG ratings which are forward looking eg. incorporating transition plans, neutral, transparent, and based off robust data. This will ensure that funds flow to worthy entities and projects that accelerate the transition to net zero, rather than to greenwashing activities.

The intern will help the team perform a landscape scan on the available products and trends around ESG data, ESG ratings, and related transition products, and derive and make policy recommendations on how MAS can support the development of ESG data and ratings to support fund flows towards Transition Finance, in line with Singapore’s 2050 Net Zero goals and the Paris Agreement.

This project is a thematic assessment of the insurance industry's sustainability solutions, capabilities and recommendations to enhance Singapore's value proposition and make Singapore a hub for sustainable insurance solutions.

This will involve a stock-take of the sustainability related solutions offered by leading insurers, reinsurers and brokers in Singapore, comparing them with those in other insurance centres, as well as sectoral deep dives into insurance solutions for material sustainability related sectors (energy, agriculture, infrastructure, property etc).

Interns will also be exposed to the broader work of MAS development officers, including processing tax incentives and grants, writing meeting briefs and minutes, assessing industry data and attending meetings with the insurance industry.

Skills - critical thinking, market sizing, assessment and development skills. Writing, communication and stakeholder management skills.

Experience - overview of Singapore's insurance industry, a deep dive into how sustainability applies to the insurance industry.

To study the industry landscape of transition of energy resources such as coal, gas (incl. Combined Cycle Gas Technology) and nuclear power. The study will include research to gain an understanding of the industry structures, the technologies and the policies of key countries with a view of recommending potential policy levers.

• Physical climate risk exposures: Using available datasets, visualise market benchmarks or actual portfolio exposures to physical climate risks under different climate scenarios. 
• Compare available solutions to measure physical climate risks exposures for an investment portfolio – their use cases and limitations contextualised for MAS' investment portfolio.   
• Temperature alignment: Conduct a literature review of credible sources for global carbon budgets and the underlying sectoral decarbonisation pathways that are aligned with meeting the goals under the Paris Agreement. 
• Develop an understanding of how external data provider(s) construct sectoral decarbonisation pathways applicable for equities (and corporate bonds) using commonly used sector classification schemes, like MSCI GICS, consider future plans, commitments and targets of companies in the portfolio, and measured using relevant activity metrics, e.g. barrel of oil equivalent, or emissions-based metrics, e.g. tCO2e 

• Physical climate risk exposures: Propose recommendations for subscription to databases to meet current analytical needs, and future applications be assessing development direction and pipeline that could enable quantification of physical risk impacts in terms of commonly understood investment risk/ returns metrics.   
• Temperature alignment: Analyze temperature alignment for market benchmarks, and investment portfolio. 
• Summarise key insights on the use of temperature alignment metrics for managing climate risks, and the possible limitations and challenges with doing so. 

1. Opportunity to be part of a trailblazing project that will set an example for financial institutions and asset owner peers in climate risk management. 
2. Gain exposure and experience at the frontiers of the emerging and fast evolving field of ESG/ climate investing. 
3. Understand how climate related risk factors can impact investment returns in different climate scenarios, and how measurement and monitoring of climate risks is unique to other risk types given the wide cones of uncertainties around the magnitude and pace of the transition to a low-emissions future. 
4. Opportunity to understand how investments and risk management are conducted at one of the top central banks in the world and a global leader in green finance. 
5. Stakeholder engagement and presentation skills.