To build an efficient and trusted carbon market, we will need better and verifiable abatement data, harmonisation in carbon accounting practices, and interoperability between the voluntary and compliance carbon markets. Singapore is well-positioned to be a carbon services and trading hub. We have sound infrastructure, good governance, and a premium on trust – critical ingredients for a marketplace. We are located at the heart of Southeast Asia which is fertile ground to harness the potential of nature-based solutions for carbon sequestration.Southeast Asia holds more than one-third of the world's mangroves and has about 120 million hectares of land suitable for re-forestation. We are strengthening the carbon credit value-chain by growing project development capabilities: certify and validate project design, and monitor and verify project outcomes. Third strategy – good-quality data to support transition finance. Credible and comparable data is foundational for the climate agenda. Data on carbon stocks, emissions profiles of projects, and historical deal data can provide the market with a proper view of climate-related risks. Good-quality data is key to robust sustainability reporting, combating greenwashing, and enabling investors to make effective ESG-informed decisions. Good-quality data enables solutions such as blended finance and forms the backbone of an efficient and trusted carbon market. But there is a significant gap between data needs and data availability. The ESG data acquisition process is often manual, tedious and costly. Data verification is at a nascent stage. To build a credible ESG data ecosystem, MAS has launched a collaborative effort with the financial industry called Project Greenprint.
Ravi Menon: Net zero - act now, act fast, act together Keynote speech by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the COP27 Singapore Pavilion Finance Day, Sharm El-Sheikh, 9 November 2022. *** Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Singapore Pavilion's Finance Day, hosted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Climate change is no longer a prediction, it is becoming a reality. The frequency and intensity of today's extreme weather events have exceeded early climate models. We are in a race for our lives, to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Unless we act now, act fast, and act together, we will lose that race. We need to act now to start reducing emissions. The world is currently far from a net-zero emissions trajectory. Global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, not falling. If we do not act now to start decarbonising, we risk breaching tipping points that will lead to catastrophic and irreversible climate change, with unimaginable risks to lives and livelihoods. We need to act fast to finance the transition to net-zero. Decarbonisation is a costly affair. We must also balance decarbonisation and development. The world requires significant financing for sustainable development and new technologies to reach net zero by 2050 - by some estimates, $ trillion annually. This is $ trillion more than the annual investment today. And we need to act together. The climate challenge is too big for governments or any one country to solve.