CONNECT Kicks-off in Singapore with Huge Feast of Sustainable Finance

We are amidst a huge climate crisis, and the time for action is now. This was the clear message delivered by Sean Kidney, CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative in his opening remarks. Kicking off the CONNECT series in Singapore, it was acknowledged that our host nation as well as those in ASEAN are particularly exposed to climate disasters, and there are huge economies in the Asia-Pacific which are crucial to have allied in the climate fight. Though the green bond market nears USD2 trillion in market volume to date, we need to reach 5 trillion in green issuance per year by 2025 – a big chunk of this target figure is expected to come from Asia. The Singapore Seminar was about realising the severity of climate risk, but the opportunity in the just transition to climate-aligned resilient world.

Key takeaways

There’s no time to lose. Urgency is key to scaling up climate capital in time to avert climate collapse; It is also key to Singapore Stock Exchange’s approach to the challenge ahead, Herry Cho asserted as she opened a discussion on the journey to net-zero. Though great hope lies in the soaring ambition in national net-zero journeys across the region, now is the time for action. Without urgency Cho forewarned, we are at risk of a disorderly transition – a slower transition heightening chaos and greater physical risk. Instead, we need to fast tilt the economy to green infrastructure in green cities, for green futures. We need to imagine the future we need and create it.

President Jin from AIIB shared the organisation aims to reach at least 50% of climate finance by 2025 and flagged that AIIB has invested more than 1.4 billion dollars in green and sustainable bonds in Asia. His remarks proceeded a captivating discussion on taxonomies; the global rise of these regulatory frameworks in recent years was hailed as ‘taxomania’, by Sean Kidney as he moderated the panel. Taxonomies, it was heard, create something very difficult: a shopping list for a green future across the breadth of economic sectors relied upon by modern civilization. But their operation is simple, claimed Bloomberg’s Nadia Humphreys. ‘Much like a car, the nuts and bolts of its constuction is complex engineering, but ultimately operating it is a matter of getting inside and getting going.’

Taxonomies can be of similar use for climate finance. The panel agreed on the vital importance of international operability of taxonomies. As different taxonomy regimes are arising across continents and nations, companies should not have to be issuing bonds trying to fulfil the criteria of different taxonomies to appease investors. Likewise, investors in Europe should be able to see an issuance under criteria of an Asian taxonomy and be confident it will meet their own investment standards and values. As our CONNECT series from moves Singapore to our Global event in London, we will be joined by taxonomies experts in Europe and South America, to hear more on making taxonomy regimes interoperable.

In the day’s final session, panelists discussed the role of Governments in climate change mitigation. We heard an overview of Japan's approach to carbon neutrality and its continued efforts to support the transition of emerging markets. We also heard an overview of Hong Kong's carbon neutrality plan which highlighed the importance of increasing investments in climate resilient cities and the role of patient capital. Of course, environmental detriment of the scale in which we are faced requires a response that pervades national borders and elicits harmonious international action. We will pick up where we left off here, in our ‘Governments Driving Change’ session at the Global Conference. There we will be joined by Danish Climate Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen, Martin Spolc – a lead figure in the EU Commission’s work on sustainable finance and Moody’s Rahul Ghosh. Be sure to CONNECT with us in London to hear their proposals to drive the market forward.

Climate Bonds would like to thank all of our panellists, attendees, and sponsors for a remarkable opening to our CONNECT series. The Global conference in London (20th October), the Latin American and Caribbean seminar in Mexico (29th & 30th of November and 1st of December), and the US seminar in New York (8th December) remain in the series. You can register for these leading events here: https://events.climatebonds.net/CBC22RegistrationForm

‘Til next time!

Climate Bonds