ravi menon : from coal to clean - managed phaseout in the asiapacific remarks by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore and chairman of the apac network advisory board, at the gfanz apac summit opening, tokyo, 5 june 2023. * * * mary schapiro and colleagues from gfanz global, gfanz apac advisory board members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming for the inaugural gfanz apac summit. we launched the gfanz asia pacific network a year ago, in recognition of the critical importance of this region to the global fight against climate change. ms yuki yasui, managing director of the gfanz apac network, will speak on the achievements of the network shortly. let me just say, on behalf of the advisory board, how proud we are of the outcomes that yuki and her team have achieved in such a short span of time. mary has given us a very comprehensive overview of all the work that needs to be done and what gfanz is doing on all those fronts. transition is the centre piece of all that work and she has touched on it extensively. i want to touch on the mother of all transitions, and i think it is also the single most important step we can take to reach netzero by 2050 – and that is to accelerate the retirement of coal fired power plants. coal power generation is the largest source of carbon emissions globally. the international energy agency has called for a 55 % reduction in coal - related emissions by 2030 and a full phaseout of unabated coal in power generation by 2040. early phaseout of coal is especially critical in the asia pacific. the region's coal plants account for about a third of apac's total ghg emissions. more ominously, if they continue to operate as planned, they will exhaust twothirds of the carbon budget that we have remaining to keep the rise in global temperatures from increasing to within 1. 5 degrees celsius. the challenge of phasing out coal is also most acute in the asia pacific. coal accounts for nearly 60 % of power generation in the region. asia's energy demand is projected to increase by two - and - a - half times by 2050, on the back of economic development, population growth, and urbanisation. the asian development bank estimates that around 150 million people in apac still do not have access to electricity. so this

the central bank to conduct financial management. in recent years, china ’ s market - based interest rate reform has advanced steadily, with significant progress achieved in the deregulation of money market interest rate. first, market has been playing an increasingly important role in determining the types of interest rate in the money market, which now include inter - bank lending rate, bond repurchase rate, bill market discount rate, interest rate in the primary and secondary market of government bond and policy financial bond. second, management of interest rate on loans and deposits has been streamlined. the previous practice of regulating most types of interest rate has been changed and commercial banks have been given greater flexibility in managing the interest rate. third, the floating band of interest rate on loans to small and medium sized enterprises has been widened for three times, leading to improved risk management capability of the banks and enabling these enterprises to have easier access to bank credit. fourth, management of interest rate on foreign currency has been relaxed. at present, there are only a few types of foreign currency interest rate that are still subject to the central bank management. fifth, domestic commercial banks have introduced large amount time deposit business for domestic insurance companies, with the interest rate jointly determined by both sides. despite the above progress, china ’ s market - based interest rate reform has lagged behind the overall economic reform and opening up. one of the major reasons is lack of proper understanding of the reform. for example, when talking about the level of interest rate, some people tend to think it is solely determined by the cost of fund, without giving due consideration to market supply and demand. this is similar to the improper understanding of the factors determining the price of goods in the early stage of reform. in addition, some people have not established the concept of risk premium when considering the level of interest rate. the need for favourable interest rate policy to support the reform of small and medium - sized enterprises is also a factor affecting the level of interest rate. ii. measures to push ahead with market - based interest rate reform to steadily advance the market - based interest rate reform is a direction clearly defined by the party and the government. as to the specific measure, they have been under frequent discussion by the monetary policy committee and involve the following aspects. first, further widening the floating band of lending rate. at present, different lending rate bands around the central bank ’ s benchmark rate are applied to loans extended by different types of financial institutions and provided to enterprises of different size.