The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a fourth public consultation on the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy that includes criteria for coal phase-out projects. The Singapore-Asia taxonomy was developed by the Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT), an industry-led initiative convened by MAS to accelerate the development of green finance. There have so far been three consultations on the taxonomy released, in January 2021, May 2022, and February 2023, with the final version of the taxonomy due be published in June this year. However, MAS decided last month that a fourth consultation was needed to include coal phaseout in the taxonomy. This new consultation, which is open for comments until 28 July, sets out detailed thresholds and criteria for financing the early phase-out of coal-fired power plants. It also proposes to set technical screening criteria in the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy applicable to coal plant facilities as well as their owner entities – taking into consideration other guidance including the ASEAN Taxonomy, and the ‘The Managed Phaseout of High-Emitting Assets’ report by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. The key technical criteria screening includes coal plant being phased out by 2040, and plants being replaced by clean energy capacity that is at least equivalent to the phased-out electricity capacity. At the entity level, owners should commit to no new development of coal plants and have a transition plan for reaching full alignment to 1.5°C by 2030 under the criteria.
.@MAS_sg decided to issue a fourth consultation to include criteria for coal phaseout projects in the Singapore-Asia #Taxonomy.https://t.co/S49V5Fretf
— Regulation Asia (@RegulationAsia) June 29, 2023
