Climate adaptation needs its own investment language, Singapore regulator says

Climate adaptation and resilience projects need their own common investment language if private capital is to flow into them at the scale needed across Asia, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Speaking at a Singapore finance forum, MAS Chief Sustainability Officer Abigail Ng said investors increasingly recognize adaptation financing as an issue but lack clarity on what counts as a credible investment, unlike climate mitigation projects, which can be measured in a shared unit: one tonne of avoided or removed carbon dioxide.

MAS is working with other Southeast Asian nations on a shared framework, called the Mitigation Co-Benefit and Adaptation and Resilience Guide, to help companies and governments identify climate hazards and communicate about resilience investments more consistently. The gap is significant: climate-related events in Southeast Asia have caused an estimated $235 billion in economic losses over the past three decades, and the United Nations Development Programme estimates the region will need $422 billion cumulatively by 2030 to prepare for climate impacts, even though only about 17% of global climate finance currently goes toward adaptation.

Development banks and commercial lenders at the forum said governments still need to play a central role, since many adaptation projects, unlike revenue-generating clean energy projects, don't produce predictable cash flows. The Asian Development Bank's Jackie Surtani said multilateral banks should focus on absorbing early-stage risk to bring in more commercial capital, while UOB's Melissa Moi said banks need more detailed, forward-looking data on physical climate risks before they can confidently finance adaptation at scale.

Based on reporting by Siva Selan for Eco-Business. Read the original: https://www.eco-business.com/news/climate-adaptation-and-resilience-need-its-own-investment-language-mas/