Breaking New Ground

Industry update

Asset management

Keppel achieves first close for sustainable urban renewal fund
The Keppel Sustainable Urban Renewal fund closed after securing Korean institutional capital. This bring the total funds under management in its sustainable urban renewal ("SUR") strategy to over USD1.7 billion. The fund invests in real estate and platform opportunities to create sustainable assets across real estate segments including commercial, living, life sciences, hospitality and logistics in Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Australia and first-tier cities in China.

Wellington Management Raises $385 Million for Climate Tech Venture Fund
The Wellington Climate Innovation Fund invests in private companies developing solutions to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, targeting primarily late-venture and early-growth companies developing tech-enabled solutions, in areas ranging from software, sensors and AI, to data and analytics, and across themes including energy transition, sustainable buildings and cities, transportation and mobility, industrial automation, enterprise digitisation, sustainable consumer, and food and agriculture innovation.

BlackRock, Temasek decarbonisation venture raises $1.4B
Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay said in the release that collective efforts like this funding round are “critical” in striving for global net-zero ambitions, and the funding will help accelerate decarbonisation at scale. “Addressing the climate crisis requires innovation at scale, as well as significant and sustained financial resources to enable that,” Pillay said. “No single entity can do it on their own.”

Banking and capital markets

Citi, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC") to give new climate metric in deals with New York City ("NYC")
Under agreements struck with NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, the three banks will disclose their ratio of financing for low-carbon energy projects compared with their financing for fossil fuel projects.

Insurance

Insurers' climate alliance relaunches after member exodus
The insurance group, called the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (“NZIA”), will be disbanded and replaced by the Forum for Insurance Transition to Net Zero (“FIT”), the United Nations Environment Programme, which convened the NZIA. Members will not need to set targets to reduce their emissions and report on them annually, as was the case with NZIA.

Financiers and insurers ready to support electrification of the domestic harbour craft sector
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (“MPA”) has received 12 financing and seven insurance proposals in response to the Expression of Interest (“EOI”) launched to support early adopters of electric harbour craft (e-HC).

Lloyd's of London inadequate on ESG, report says
The article discussed about how the Lloyd's of London, being one of the world's biggest commercial insurers, will have to improve its current ESG standards as considered weak, considering the exposure it has to fossil fuels projects and weapons.

ESG platforms, solutions and tools

New registry for Singapore businesses to track and report carbon emissions launched
The registry works by capturing a database of emission factors developed based on Singapore’s context. These emission factors will convert operational data from business activities into corresponding greenhouse gas emissions.

ISSB publishes digital taxonomy for sustainability disclosures
The ISSB announced the publication of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy (ISSB Taxonomy), a new digital tool aimed at enabling investors to analyse sustainability-related financial disclosures based on the ISSB’s recently released sustainability and climate-related reporting standards. According to an IFRS statement announcing the new tool, the new Taxonomy “will enable investors to search, extract and compare sustainability-related financial disclosures as ISSB establishes its global baseline of Standards.”

Interesting reads

SBTi approves carbon credits for Scope 3 emissions offsetting to dismay of NGOs, own staff
The Science Based Targets initiative (“SBTi”) will allow companies to use carbon credits to offset their Scope 3 supply chain emissions as they work towards their climate targets – a move that has pleased businesses but frustrated environmentalists.

Latest transition plan resources published
The materials published by the Transition Plan Taskforce (“TPT”) on the 9th April 2024 include sector-specific transition plan guidance for Asset Owners, Asset Managers, Banks, Electric Utilities & Power Generators, Food & Beverage, Metals & Mining and Oil & Gas and sector summary guidance, with high level guidance for 30 sectors of the global economy.

Singapore invests S$35 million in sustainable finance upskilling of financial sector
The new investment announcement was made alongside the release by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) and Institute of Banking and Finance (“IBF”) of the Sustainable Finance Jobs Transformation Map (“JTM”), a new study predicting that the sustainable finance market in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) over the next decade will amount to S$4 to 5 trillion, spurring a major need to upskill the financial services workforce in order to seize these opportunities.

The social cost of carbon is now US$225 per tonne – what this means for Asia
If there is one thing that economists can universally agree on, it is the need for energy prices to reflect their true cost to human well-being. But estimating the “social cost of carbon” in a way that reflects the uneven distribution of damages across wealthier and lower-income nations has proven to be a challenging endeavour.