MAS is supporting corporates in Singapore and in Asia to issue green, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds and loans. MAS introduced a grant scheme in 2017 to help corporates defray the costs of issuing green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds aligned with international standards. Last year, MAS introduced a similar scheme for green and sustainability-linked loans, the first of its kind in the world. The outcomes from these efforts have been encouraging. Despite the pandemic, green and sustainability-linked loan issuances in Singapore grew by 65% last year. Some $ billion of green, social and sustainability bonds were issued in 2020, bringing total issuance in Singapore to $ billion. These loans and bonds have supported many meaningful outcomes – such as renewable energy, green buildings, sustainable water and wastewater treatment. The Singapore government will start issuing green bonds to finance major sustainability projects, including green public infrastructure. This should help to deepen market liquidity for green bonds, and attract green issuers, capital, and investors to Singapore. Second, promote innovative disaster risk insurance products to strengthen climate risk resilience in Asia. Singapore has gained good traction as an Asian domicile for insurance-linked securities – innovative instruments that securitise and transfer peak risks such as catastrophe risks to capital markets. A total of 10 such insurance-linked securities have been launched in Singapore. They cover a range of natural catastrophes across Asia and Australia, including earthquake and typhoon 3/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  risks. Third, attract green funds and asset managers with a sustainability focus.

The lack of consistency and transparency affects investors’ ability to monitor progress in emissions reduction or measure outcomes in sustainability. We are tackling this issue through four strategies. First, provide guidance for asset managers to assess, monitor, mitigate and disclose environmental risks. MAS recently issued to all financial institutions guidelines on environmental risk management incorporating best practices drawn from around the world. In fact, MAS co-created these guidelines with IMAS, actively engaging asset managers to better understand industry practices. I am pleased that IMAS will be conducting workshops to strengthen capabilities in this area. 4/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  Second, develop taxonomy to identify and classify activities that can be considered green or in transition towards green. An industry-led green finance task force has issued a consultation paper setting out a green taxonomy for Singapore-based financial institutions. The taxonomy references international best practices and adapts them to the Asian context where relevant. A unique feature of the proposed taxonomy is that it covers transition activities that allow for a progressive shift towards greater sustainability while supporting inclusive economic and social development. It adopts a “traffic-light” system which sets out how activities can be classified as green, yellow, or red according to their level of alignment with environmental objectives. The taskforce will develop, in its next phase of work, a combination of principle-based criteria and quantifiable thresholds for green and transition activities. Third, promote active stewardship by investors to promote sustainability in their investee companies.