Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Thank you for joining us at the Singapore Pavilion on Finance Day.

2. This year’s Pavilion theme is “Shared Resilience, Strengthened by Community” and sustainable finance works the same way. It depends on governments, development institutions, financial institutions, insurers, investors, businesses and philanthropies.

3. Much of the climate‑finance conversation has centred on the financing gap. But capital moves only when investors are clear about what they are financing, whether project economics work, and whether the risks are understood and appropriately shared.

4. At COP29, MAS spoke about the building blocks Singapore was putting in place to support Asia’s transition. Two years on, frameworks have been refined, financing platforms have attracted partners, and capital is starting to reach projects.

5. Our focus now is on turning these efforts into investments that deliver real climate benefits. Today, I will cover two areas – transition, and adaptation and resilience – and how we are working with partners to bring greater clarity, manage our risks better, and mobilise capital.

Transition: From Taxonomy to Transactions

6. Let me start with transition finance. Asia needs reliable, affordable energy for growing demand, while bringing emissions down. The challenge for finance is how to best support turning credible transition pathways into real-economy investments that deliver these reductions.

7. On transition, I have three areas to highlight today: the taxonomy, the funds, and carbon market capabilities. The Singapore‑Asia Taxonomy, or SAT, is one tool that helps. It gives guidance on both green and transition activities. Financial institutions and corporates are using the SAT to structure lending and borrowing frameworks, guide decarbonisation plans, and finance eligible activities.

a. Over the past year, MAS worked closely with the Singapore Sustainable Finance Association, or SSFA, to review the SAT. Today, SSFA released the second edition, with updates to transition activities in energy, maritime, data centres, and iron and steel.

b. The updates reflect broad industry input and suggestions. They place greater emphasis on climate mitigation outcomes, align more closely with international frameworks, and expand the guidance on transition-enabling activities and SAT-aligned equity financing.

c. These updated taxonomies are already starting to be applied. The Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies (FEET), set up in Singapore by the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation and AIM Horizon Investments. FEET plans to align its investments with the updated SAT transition criteria. It will deploy capital into vessel energy-efficiency technologies, such as wind-assisted propulsion systems.

8. This shows how a taxonomy can guide capital in hard-to-abate sectors, where reductions often come from incremental yet critical investments in existing assets.

9. So we see clarity on credible transition activities as one part of the challenge. The other part of the challenge is getting capital into the projects that can deliver the transition. This is where the Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership, or FAST-P, comes in.

10. Yesterday, at our FAST-P session, the fund managers spoke about their progress in deploying capital, and the challenges of turning commitments into projects.

a. The Energy Transition Acceleration Finance partnership, or ETAF, which is managed by Clifford Capital. It aims to mobilise capital for Asia’s energy transition, including grid modernisation and investments to replace coal-fired power with lower-emissions alternatives.

b. We also recognised the Asian Development Bank (ADB), AIA Group (AIA) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for their signed commitments to the Emerging Asia Infrastructure Credit fund under our Industrial Transformation Programme, or the ITP. The ITP supports industrial decarbonisation in Asia. ADB’s commitment includes funds they manage on behalf of the governments of Canada and Australia.

c. The Green Investments Partnership, or GIP, managed by Pentagreen Capital, finances mid-market developers and delivers projects across Southeast Asia and India.

11. Collectively, these three funds have raised over US$1 billion. This can help finance projects that may otherwise struggle to access commercial capital.

12. Raising capital is only the first step. Deployment is where impact starts. Following the first close in May 2025, Pentagreen has begun putting capital to work through the GIP. Most recently, it announced US$50 million in financing for Candi Solar, helping underserved businesses in India, particularly SMEs, adopt solar and battery storage. The projects are expected to avoid about 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

13. Beyond frameworks and financing platforms, we are building capabilities across the ecosystem. Carbon markets are one example.

14. Last year, MAS launched the Financial Sector Carbon Market Development Grant to help financial institutions build carbon market capabilities and develop carbon financing solutions in Singapore.

15. I am pleased to share the first projects supported under the grant.

a. Standard Chartered is expanding its Singapore-based carbon market capabilities across wealth management and corporate banking. This includes developing carbon-related solutions for private banking and SME clients, and strengthening its ability to originate and structure financing for carbon project developers in Asia.

 b. WWF-Singapore is also collaborating with Great Eastern to develop and pilot insurance solutions for nature-based carbon projects supported by WWF’s Canopy Nature Finance Facility. By addressing project and carbon credit delivery risks, these General Insurance solutions aim to strengthen investor confidence and therefore, catalyse financing for nature-based carbon projects.

16. Across all of these initiatives, our aim is to make credible transition investments easier to identify and finance. And we look forward to supporting more projects under the grant to advance carbon market activities in Singapore and the region.

Adaptation and Resilience: Measuring Resilience, Managing Risks and Mobilising Capital

17. We see opportunities to take a similar approach to adaptation and resilience, although the financing challenges are different.

18. The frameworks and financing approaches are less developed. And unlike mitigation, where carbon gives us a broadly accepted metric, resilience outcomes are context-specific and harder to assess.

19. So how do you invest in resilience if you cannot measure it? There is no common language for resilience investments – no currently shared way to measure their benefits in terms that financiers can use. That makes it harder for them to compare projects and deploy capital at scale.

20. MAS has started working with like-minded industry partners to explore a common language for resilience investments. We are not looking for a single framework or metric. What we are trying to do is to first understand what different approaches measure, how today they can complement one another, and more importantly, where the gaps are. In doing so, we hope to make the landscape easier to navigate and support more investment in resilience.

21. I want to highlight insurance’s distinctive role to play. Insurers see risks across the life of an asset, from design and construction to operation and, in some cases, failure. Their expertise can help businesses and financiers manage physical climate risks before they materialise.

22. I am pleased to share that Zurich Insurance Group yesterday announced their plans to establish the Zurich Resilience Centre in Singapore in the first quarter of 2027. Drawing on Zurich’s risk expertise, data and analytics, the Centre aims to turn risk insights into practical action, strengthening resilience and long-term insurability across Asia-Pacific.

23. Clarity and stronger risk capabilities help financiers assess opportunities. The next challenge is mobilising capital for resilience.

24. Taking reference from FAST‑P, Singapore has built the capability to put capital to work – so far mainly for mitigation. We now want to apply this experience and capabilities similarly to adaptation and resilience.

25. Yesterday, Minister Grace Fu and Singapore’s Ambassador for Climate Action, Mr Ravi Menon, announced the SPIRE Asia programme, which stands for “Scaling Projects and Investments for Resilience in Asia”. It includes a proposed agri‑food blended finance resilience fund of up to US$500 million. The fund aims to help bring more capital into strengthening the climate resilience of the region’s food systems.

26. We very much welcome potential catalytic capital providers, technical partners, and fund managers with expertise in agri-food and climate adaptation to work with us to bring this fund to market.

Conclusion: Partnership in Practice

27. Let me conclude. MAS and the industry are working together to create the conditions for capital to flow more consistently and confidently – towards credible transition pathways, investable projects, and replicable approaches.

28. As this work progresses, we should also ask harder questions: Are the frameworks being applied in practice and adopted broadly? Are financing structures doing enough to mobilise catalytic capital and reaching projects that would otherwise struggle to attract financing? How are all these efforts adding up and delivering what we set out to achieve? My own sense is that there are encouraging early signs, but there is much more to do, and we can do it together.

29. This brings me back to the Singapore Pavilion’s theme, “Shared Resilience, Strengthened by Community”. Progress depends on institutions with different mandates and risk appetites, working towards a shared goal.

30. MAS looks forward to continuing this work with all our partners, and welcome new ones on this journey with us. Thank you. 

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