The Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (“SSFA“) was launched on 24 January 2024 to bring together the financial sector and industry to achieve Singapore’s transition to net zero, in three focus areas:
(a) Development of industry best practices. Clear and credible standards boost investors’ trust and confidence to drive capital to legitimate green and transition activities. Through the SSFA, the industry’s perspective can inform the evolving standards in sustainable finance. Emergent areas include carbon credits trading, transition finance, and region-contextualised sectoral pathways. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS“) is working with international organisations to develop region-contextualised sectoral pathways. Significant developments of standards for the industry last year include the launch of the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy that classifies green and transition activities (read more in our Legal Update here) and the issuance of an industry code of conduct for ESG Rating and Data Product Providers (read more in our Legal Update here).
(b) Innovative solutions to identify integrated approaches that overcome barriers in scaling financing will be key to improve the bankability of projects for climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and biodiversity preservation. Last year, MAS (and industry partners) announced the Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership, to scale the financing for green and transition infrastructure and technologies in the region. Another tool to unlock financing is through the carbon market – in this regard, MAS launched the Transition Credits Coalition and two pilot projects in December 2023 to explore this potential financing avenue (read more in our Legal Update here).
(c) Guidance on upskilling and capacity building initiatives. SSFA will provide guidance on the relevance of sustainable finance courses in areas such as carbon markets, taxonomy application, and blended finance. In April this year, MAS (together with the Institute of Banking and Finance and Workforce Singapore) will share key initiatives and conclusions from a Jobs Transformation Map study for the financial sector.
Click on the following link for more information:
For more information, click here to read the full Legal Update.
