Today was a busy day in Singapore as we launched two papers that delve into the green finance needs of Singapore and how it can become a hub for such finance in ASEAN and Asia.
The Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) in partnership with the UN Environment Inquiry launched a report titled Collaborative Initiative for Green Finance in Singapore: Singapore as a Green Finance Hub for ASEAN and Asia at the G20 Green Finance Conference in Singapore. The report is a major outcome of the Collaborative Initiative with the UN Environment Inquiry (which lent international expertise on the subject) on green finance in Singapore – a five-month long engagement of the financial sector to establish the baseline for the country’s current level of understanding of green finance, outlining the opportunities and possibilities, and consolidating recommendations to develop a shared vision on how to move green finance forward.
Green Finance Opportunities in ASEAN, produced by financial services group DBS and the UN Environment Inquiry, finds that US$3 trillion in green investment is needed between 2016 and 2030. This represents a new ASEAN green investment market 37 times the size of the global 2016 green bond market.
The report lays out ways in which the ASEAN region can unlock this investment and protect its people, environment and economies. It provides an analysis of green investment opportunities in the region from 2016 to 2030, assesses the characteristics of those opportunities, and estimates current green finance flows. Based on a literature review and expert interviews, it also lays out some of the barriers to scaling up ASEAN green finance and how to address them.
And last but not least, tomorrow we will be sending you an update on Establishing China’s Green Financial System: Progress Report and then finally stop annoying you for the week. We know, three e-alerts in a week is a bit much, but be honest, you’ll miss us ?