FOLLOWING the conclusion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Singapore can count itself broadly satisfied but also reflect on what might have been. The nation was a prominent and productive player, both in the main negotiations and on sideline dealmaking in Dubai, but did not emerge with everything it wanted.

Singapore’s net-zero strategy and aspirations are based on a clear-eyed assessment of national limitations and strengths. The nation has a dependence on carbon-intensive industries like petrochemicals and lacks the available land to be a large-scale generator of renewable energy. But it also has one of the world’s leading professional services sectors and an established history as a regional and global trading centre.

Singapore arrived at COP28 determined to leverage those strengths and advance its goal of becoming a global carbon services and trading centre. As Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said: “High-integrity carbon markets can contribute to much-needed climate action globally. As an alternative-energy disadvantaged country, effective international cooperation, such as through carbon markets, will help us to achieve our climate ambitions.”

Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean said the nation would use COP to “reaffirm its commitment to domestic climate action, regional partnerships and global collaboration”.

In Dubai, Singapore scored important wins in the first two areas, but saw a frustrating delay – despite engaging productively – in the global collaboration to create a high-integrity and standardised global carbon market.

Through its role as co-chair of the mitigation negotiations and also more broadly, Singapore engaged positively with efforts to “operationalise” Article 6 – the carbon markets rule book that is intended to standardise how carbon credits are produced, assessed and traded.

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Article 6 is intended as the mechanism to create a transparent market that all participants can trust and engage confidently in, helping individual nations to use carbon credits and trading as a decarbonisation tool to reach their own Paris Agreement commitments.

A breakthrough on implementing Article 6 was expected in Dubai, but that did not materialise and has now been slated for discussion at COP29 in Azerbaijan. It is a delay that does not derail Singapore’s ambitions to be a carbon markets and services leader, but an opportunity was missed to fast-track that emergence.

Wisely, though, Singapore’s delegation did not arrive in Dubai with all its eggs placed in the Article 6 basket. COP28 was filled with side announcements about high-integrity carbon credits, green finance and decarbonisation initiatives, and Singapore was at the heart of much of it.

The country announced a collaboration with the world’s largest independent carbon crediting programmes – Gold Standard and Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard – to develop a playbook that other nations can use to achieve and exceed their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.

Singapore also announced a new partnership with ratings agency Sylvera, which will help to identify top-tier carbon credits under Article 6, allowing the city-state to more effectively reach its national targets.

Regional collaboration has been a big feature of Singapore’s approach. All of Asia, and South-east Asia in particular, faces a daunting challenge to decarbonise economic sectors such as energy, manufacturing and agriculture. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) signalled a desire to lead by launching a new Transition Credits Coalition (Traction) to create carbon credits linked to the phase-out of coal-fired power stations.

Two pilot projects in the Philippines will illustrate how this approach can contribute to tackling what is a massive challenge in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, China and India. MAS also launched Fast-P (Financing Asia’s Transition Partnerships), a blended finance facility that seeks to mobilise US$5 billion in green finance for the region.

On carbon, Asia is a land of both challenges and opportunities. The region accounts for as much as a third of the global potential for nature-based carbon projects. Singapore has signed Article 6 memorandums of understanding with a range of countries, but the first Article 6 Implementation Agreement was signed with Papua New Guinea (PNG) during COP28, paving the way for companies in Singapore to use credits from PNG to offset up to 5 per cent of their taxable emissions.

As the PNG announcement made clear: “Trading these credits through Singapore will help to unlock new business opportunities in areas such as carbon services and sustainability solutions”.

Singapore has long been a classic marketplace, but when it comes to decarbonisation, it is uniquely placed to act as a bridge between China and the United States (the two most important players at this COP) as well as between developing and developed nations – the gap that must be closed to reach net zero.

The nation’s representatives have used these negotiations to work towards a global order that will accelerate decarbonisation, but also advanced national and regional interests, positioning Singapore as a desirable home for investment as well as the services and expertise that will be needed across Asia and beyond.

Singapore is engaging with the world, while also forging its own path and engaging directly with its neighbours. All of these factors explain why we have recently set up an office in the Garden City, which emerges from COP28 as one of the most dynamic and exciting places in the world for decarbonisation solutions.

The writers are managing directors of the Singapore office of global climate and nature investment advisory firm Pollination