On Friday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the People’s Bank of China (PBC) announced the China-Singapore Green Finance Taskforce (GFTF). The capital needed to transition to a low carbon world is significant, and governments are looking for private sector participation through green finance. With Singapore as a major financial hub in Asia, together they want to improve financing flows between Singapore, China and the region.
The first three work priorities of the initiative include common taxonomies, products and technology. On the technology front, Singapore’s Metaverse Green Exchange and Beijing Green Exchange will pilot digital green bonds and carbon credits.
The Metaverse Green Exchange (MVGX) has multiple MAS licenses and tokenizes carbon credits through its Carbon Neutrality Token (CNT) on the public Ethereum blockchain. Last year, MVGX announced a collaboration with Singapore’s OCBC bank and the Indonesia Stock Exchange is exploring a deal.
The CNT token is linked to various green projects. These already include China’s Voluntary Emission Reduction credits (“VERs”) and China Certified Emission Reductions (“CCERs”).
Meanwhile, last week Singapore also launched the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute (SGFIN). During the official ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong spoke about climate challenge and how Asia is responsible for around half of greenhouse gas emissions. McKinsey estimates that $3 trillion a year needs to be spent to achieve net zero by 2050.
“This massive funding gap cannot be met by public finance alone,” said Mr. Wong.” No government can afford to do so. And that’s why we need to strengthen public-private partnerships, and mobilise more capital from both public and private sources.”
