Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) managing director Ravi Menon launched the second edition of the Singapore Pavilion in Dubai on Nov 30. Over the next 12 days, the Pavilion will feature panels and announcements by leaders from Singapore’s public and private sectors, alongside the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Themed “Accelerating collective climate action”, the Pavilion showcases how Singapore is convening players across sectors and domains, and from around the world, to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and build a climate-resilient future, say joint organisers National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE).
The negotiations that take place at COP to foster new climate commitments are critically important, says Menon in his opening address. “But it’s actually out here in pavilions like these where commitments are turned into action, and where individual contributions coalesce into collective impact.”
According to Menon, the Pavilion’s programme will span three themes: decarbonisation, finance and resilience. MAS is set to announce further initiatives around blended finance and transition carbon credits in the coming days, he adds.
“Blended finance is basically about bringing together various partners from the public and private sectors to contribute in different but synergistic ways to make green and transition projects bankable. Concessionary capital, coupled with technical assistance and regulatory certainty, can help to reduce risks and crowd in multiples of private, commercial capital,” says Menon, who is set to retire from MAS at the end of the year.
In September, MAS published a working paper with McKinsey outlining so-called “transition credits”, a new class of “high-integrity carbon credits” that could be sold to incentivise owners of coal-fired power plants to retire their assets early and replace them with renewable energy.
“Such transition credits, if they can be made to work, can potentially enable a broader market driven financing mechanism to help crowd in private capital,” adds Menon. “We’ll be sharing concrete initiatives on scaling these financing mechanisms and announcing new partnerships to take them forward over the next few days.”
At COP28, Minister of Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu will co-facilitate mitigation negotiations with her Norwegian counterpart.
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In a recorded message, Fu says the Singapore Pavilion is “not just a physical space”. “It represents a commitment to climate action. It allows Team Singapore — made up of the public, private and people sectors — to show what we are doing collectively to tackle the challenge of our generation.”
Singapore’s decarbonisation efforts rely on international cooperation, she adds. “We derive strength from our willingness to collaborate with the world and we bring value to our partners with our position as a maritime, aviation and finance node in Asia. With your contributions and support, we can all aspire to make a difference beyond our borders.”
Located at Expo City in Dubai, the Pavilion will host speakers such as Professor Koh Lian Pin, chief sustainability scientist of the National University of Singapore; Steve Howard, vice chairman of sustainability, Temasek; H.E. Hassanal Ibrahim, Crown Prince of Pahang, Malaysia; Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek Holdings; Marat Zapparov, CEO of Pentagreen Capital; and Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy.
Leaders of local listed companies will also speak at the Pavilion. They are: Helen Wong, group CEO of OCBC Bank; Tan Su Shan, managing director and group head of institutional banking, DBS Group; Esther An, chief sustainability officer (CSO) of City Developments Limited C09 ; Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX Group; Helge Muenkel, CSO of DBS; Spencer Low, CSO of SATS; and Chew Men Leong, president of urban solutions, ST Engineering.
This year’s Singapore Pavilion will also present the inaugural Climate Leaders' Assembly (CLA), in collaboration with Bain & Company and Amazon Web Services. Taking place on Nov 30, the event will gather around 150 global leaders from finance, business, philanthropy and other domains. Participants will discuss the themes of nature, energy and industry, with the aim of accelerating the global movement toward net-zero emissions, and with a focus on Asia.
The inaugural Singapore Pavilion was held at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Themed around “Building a Future of Green Possibilities”, it showcased the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
Photos: Singapore Pavilion COP28
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