Sustainable funding is key to global decarbonisation efforts – and has huge potential for economic growth

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Sustainable investment products that fund the acceleration of decarbonisation worldwide have a huge potential for growth. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), investments in clean energy could add 0.4 per cent to global GDP annually, while a jump in spending in energy efficiency, as well as in sectors including engineering, manufacturing and construction, could add 4 per cent to global GDP by 2030.

Ambitious pledges by the international community to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 increasingly include countries in Asia, with regional nations formalising ambitious plans to decarbonise their economies.

China plans to hit the peak of its carbon emissions no later than 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. South Korea and Japan aim to reach net zero by 2050. Singapore, the Asia-Pacific’s front runner in net-zero commitments, has outlined its ambitious Green Plan 2030, which aims to halve the city state’s carbon emissions by 2050.

The urgency of acting on these pledges is clear. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports the average figure for annual greenhouse gas emissions between 2010 and 2019 was higher than in any other decade. Climate Action Tracker, which assesses global pledges and decarbonisation targets, predicts the world is still heading towards a mean end-of-century warming of 2.1 degrees Celsius.

“Climate change is a collective problem that requires global action,” says Carol Wu, DBS head of private banking, Greater China.