Energy security and climate resilience must be treated as value drivers, not compliance costs, regional leaders said at the flagship Unlocking Capital for Sustainability Summit in Singapore yesterday, calling for harmonized rules to channel capital into Asia’s underfunded energy transition and adaptation priorities.
Geopolitical conflicts and supply shocks have strengthened the urgency of the energy transition, especially in import-dependent Asia. Yet fragmented regulations and technical standards continue to constrain investment at scale, said Eco Business press release.
In ASEAN alone, the region will need US $1.3 trillion by 2030 and US $11.9 trillion by 2050 to finance the clean energy transition – but the region lacks the regulatory
In a keynote dialogue, Jeffrey Siow, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Finance for Singapore, said the energy transition in Singapore is especially constrained by the energy trilemma of ensuring secure, affordable and sustainable energy supply in the country.
“Our approach here is to create options as early as possible, and when some of these options become economically viable, we will scale them,” he said in a fireside chat moderated by Jessica Cheam, Founder and CEO of Eco-Business.
This includes the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) but progress hinges on resolving cross-border technical and infrastructure needs, it added.
Siow said the major obstacle to accelerating the APG is regulation as ASEAN lacks a “unified framework for cross-border electricity”.
“As of now, domestic regulations differ in every country… It’s a patchwork at the moment which is not very helpful. The other constraints are export license durations and the lack of clear norms around how to inspect, maintain and repair subway cables, for instance.”
To accelerate deployment, Singapore and Thailand, as ASEAN chairs for 2027 and 2028 respectively, will aggressively push APG deployment. Singapore will lead the work on the ASEAN submarine power cable development framework and address hurdles in the bankability of energy trading projects, Siow said.
Beyond mitigation, adaptation and resilience are critical as Asia warms at twice the global average, exposing economies to operational, credit and social risks.
Yet Asia accounts for an estimated 75 per cent of the global climate adaptation finance gap, with only US$19 billion (9.5 per cent) of the region’s US$200 billion in annual needs currently met. In this scenario, Asian companies could face US$336 billion in annual climate-related costs.
“There’s clearly a recognition of the importance of adaptation resilience, but there are some problems for accessing the finance. It’s not a cost – it’s an investment,” Edward Vrkić, Resident Representative for UNDP Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, said in his keynote address.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Eco-Business also announced a new partnership – Unlocking AI for Sustainability, a new initiative building on the success of Unlocking capital for sustainability.
The platform will bring together thought leadership and convening to advance five priorities across the region: sustainable AI infrastructure; the use of AI for climate, energy and environmental action; AI’s role in mobilizing finance and investment; stronger supply-chain resilience; and AI safety and governance.
Organized by Eco-Business in partnership with UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, and co-located for the first time with AT ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026, the 2026 edition of Unlocking capital for Sustainability-Singapore convened more than 300 delegates from government, finance and industry under the theme of “Igniting capital, powering progress”.
“Asia Pacific sits at the center of the global climate finance gap. Beyond mitigation, adaptation needs here are rising faster than almost anywhere else, yet the communities most exposed to these remain largely outside the financial system altogether,” said Jessica Cheam, Founder and CEO, Eco-Business said.
The sustainable finance forum also marked the launch of 2027 edition of The Livability Challenge (TLC), Asia’s largest sustainability solutions platform, which announced a record of over S$5.5 million in catalytic funding to invest in and subsequently scale the next groundbreaking solutions for urban livability, it reads.
Going into its 10th year, and presented by Temasek Foundation, the global crowdfunding platform announced a new Oceans theme where, with the support of co-presenter Asia Ocean Fund, it will seek out pioneering solutions across areas such as maritime and energy and ocean data and intelligence.
The Singapore edition of Unlocking capital for sustainability was also supported by key business partners such as United Overseas Bank (UOB), City Developments Limited (CDL), BDO Unibank, CapitaLand Investment and OCBC Bank, covering a wide range of issues from closing Asia’s adaptation investment gap to pricing nature risks and addressing the climate-human health nexus and more.
In partnership with Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the forum also hosted closed-door briefing which saw focused on the policy and regulatory constraints to mobilizing and allocating climate capital through a new report, as well as the Regional Adaptation Investment Facility (RAIF) – a regional financing scheme to de-risk and catalyze climate adaptation finance for vulnerable communities.
Unlocking capital for sustainability is hosted in six markets across Asia in 2026. In addition to Singapore, the flagship forum was hosted in Jakarta in June, Kuala Lumpur in July, Manila in August and it will be hosted in Bangkok in September as well as in Hong Kong in November.
