Singapore steps up ESG disclosure action
Last week the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the People’s Bank of China (PBC) announced the launch of the China-Singapore Green Finance Taskforce (GFTF). The GFTF is designed to ease cooperation in green and transition finance in the transition to a low carbon future.
One of the GFTF’s core workstreams is to work together under the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) to achieve interoperability between the Singapore and China green economy taxonomies. Ensuring interoperability between green and climate taxonomies in these countries will help international comparability and utility of sustainability data, helping investors and regulators understand the impact of companies across the Asia area.
In addition to the Green Finance Taskforce, MAS also recently announced the Finance for Net Zero (FiNZ) Action Plan. This outlines MAS’ strategy to unlock financing for carbon reduction activities, and includes upcoming action on data and disclosure. MAS plans to promote consistent, comparable, and reliable disclosure in this area, aims to enhance interoperability of taxonomies across jurisdictions, and will soon set out a roadmap for certain institutions and companies to make International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)-aligned disclosures. We hope they will also include a focus on digital disclosure of sustainability data, ideally through the ISSB taxonomies, in their plans!
