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Issue 172: Asean Taxonomy’s unfinished business; data centres encroach on palm oil

This week in ESG: Asean launches complete version of sustainable finance criteria; Malaysian plantations to build green data centres

Kenneth Lim
Published Fri, Nov 21, 2025 · 07:00 PM
    • Singapore and Indonesia use different criteria for financing the early retirement of coal plants.
    • Singapore and Indonesia use different criteria for financing the early retirement of coal plants. ILLUSTRATION: KENNETH LIM

    DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.

    Sustainable finance

    More work ahead for complete Asean Taxonomy

    Four years after its launch, the Asean Taxonomy is finally complete, providing markets in South-east Asia with a comprehensive regional definition of activities that are eligible for sustainable finance in nine priority areas.

    Yet the emergence of significantly different taxonomies among the region’s major economies suggest that a mountain of work lies ahead to improve interoperability in South-east Asia’s developing sustainable finance ecosystem.

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