, which is when companies invest in value-adding environmental projects to balance out their own carbon footprints. These credits can come from emissions being removed from the atmosphere, through projects such as forest restoration.
“As such, the opportunities before us are real, given the pent-up demand … Singapore can play a distinctive leadership role as a trusted global financial and services hub with strong regulatory regime, market infrastructure, and services sector expertise.” The need for “a strong, Singaporean standard” also comes as environmental, social and governance disclosures are now seen by businesses as necessary and “not just a good to have”. But at the moment, ESG assurance frameworks tend to be decentralised and varied, she said.
Having a standardised certification programme will allow the public to know which product or service providers are awarded green certificates. This can also serve as motivation for other companies, said Mr Gan.MP Jamus Lim pointed out the risk of greenwashing – the act of making false or misleading claims about the environmental merits of a product, service or technology.