SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 6 March 2023 – KPMG, a leading professional services firm, has partnered with four other organisations, through the KPMG ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub, to equip businesses in the region to meet their sustainability goals in the face of strong economic headwinds and uncertainties. Through this partnership, businesses in the region will be able to “plug-and-play” decarbonisation solutions as they undertake ESG transformation towards meeting net zero goals. They will also be able to raise green financing, gain credible accreditations and certifications, and leverage digital tools for cost effective growth. A major focus of the partnership will be to facilitate low carbon and energy efficiency project origination, structuring, financing and implementations.
The four partnering organisations are Bureau Veritas (BV), Energy Institute (EI), Maybank Singapore (Maybank) and two research institutes at the National University of Singapore (NUS) – Energy Studies Institute (ESI) and Sustainable and Green Finance Institute (SGFIN). These four organisations have each signed a Memorandum of Understanding with KPMG to provide their complementary expertise to catalyse businesses’ decarbonisation goals via the Hub.
KPMG and the four partnering organisations will work together to help businesses manage the impact of climate change (see figure 1 below). Leveraging their complementary skills, they will provide businesses with customised plans to achieve their net-zero goals, including creating a carbon reduction roadmap and supporting implementation. Companies will also receive tools and solutions to pilot environment-friendly projects that offer economic incentives for reducing carbon emissions. In addition, Maybank will provide sustainable financing to encourage a strong pipeline of decarbonisation projects – this will set a precedent for successful use cases across the decarbonisation value chain, thereby increasing financing for similar projects in the region.
Finally, the Hub will also be running industry workshops in collaboration with the Energy Institute and develop thought leadership and research in the decarbonisation space together with NUS. Some of the capability development and transformation tools slated to be covered include energy efficiency across the value chain, electrification of vehicles, greening of buildings, renewable energy integration, smart grids and carbon sequestration, among others. KPMG plans to collaborate with more organisations in the future, via the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub, to provide businesses with greater capabilities and expertise that can address their decarbonisation requirements.
Annex A outlines the roles of each partnering organisation.
Sharad Somani, Partner, Head of KPMG ESG, KPMG in Singapore said, “As businesses strive to achieve net-zero commitments, they must develop implementable plans and document their carbon footprint through climate accounting infrastructure to demonstrate progress. Unfortunately, not all companies are equipped to do so. To successfully tackle climate change, collaboration is essential. That’s why KPMG created the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub � to bring together organisations with complementary skills, with the shared goal of net-zero emissions which we are seeing in this collaborative alliance with Bureau Veritas, Energy Institute, Maybank and the National University of Singapore. KPMG is also expanding the tools, financing and access to expertise for both public and private sectors to help build resilience and reach sustainability objectives during uncertain economic conditions all in pursuit of achieving net-zero emissions.”
In a KPMG 2022 CEO Outlook survey, Singapore CEOs identified the main barriers to their ESG strategies as the difficulties in identifying and measuring metrics (28 percent), lack of skills for implementation (28 percent) and lack of budget for investing in ESG transformation (20 percent). Hence, this collaborative alliance with its plug-and-play solutions, expertise and training for decarbonisation are intended to address these concerns and help move Singapore closer to reaching its goal of reducing emissions to 60 million tonnes by 2030.
Decarbonising of industries is expected to create 5.5 million jobs globally by 2050, and 50,000 in Singapore by 2030. These jobs may include those in areas such as energy efficiency, supply chain decarbonisation, green procurement, new energy technologies, carbon trading and green finance.
Figure 1: How businesses in the region will be supported for their decarbonisation drives by KPMG and its four partners
| Certified decarbonisation scores
| Setting verifiable carbon baseline |
| Certify scoring of decarbonisation efforts and impact assessment with the latest climate technology and digital life-cycle emissions tools | |
| Effective capital allocation and financing structures | Competitively priced and preferred access to green financing for energy transition and new technology solutions |
| Decarbonisation transformation
| Activation of organisation wide transformation to build capacities internally for sustainable initiatives. |
| Quality technical and operational guidance in navigating decarbonisation every stage of the pathway with midpoint re-evaluation. | |
| Specialised decarbonisation advisors who will
| Structure pilot projects in the areas of energy efficiency, low carbon fuel, storage technologies |
| Take leadership in facilitating nature-based solutions and market-based mechanisms to complement to broader decarbonisation of the targeted sectors. |
Vincent Bourdil, Senior Vice President, CIF South East Asia & CIF PAC Operating Region, commented, “At BV, Sustainability is embedded into our strategy, our organisation, our culture and across all our businesses. We serve our clients to meet the challenges of safety, the environment, social responsibility and product or service quality all along the chain. This joint partnership between Bureau Veritas and KPMG is testament to the way we contribute to our clients’ sustainability journey and help them shaping trust with their stakeholders in Southeast Asia. Leveraging our strong global expertise and local presence, we are looking forward to collaborating and developing innovative decarbonisation solutions together across the energy, transport and real estate sectors. In today’s world where sustainability knows no borders, I am delighted that Bureau Veritas, as a Business to Business to Society company, has shown its critical role to shape trust between businesses, public authorities and consumers.”
Peter Godfrey, Managing Director – APAC of the Energy Institute said that “creating a just energy transition towards a greener, cleaner future represents one, if not the greatest, of challenges of our time, and decarbonisation lies at the very heart of this challenge. But at the time, the energy transition has the potential to become a massive opportunity, not only by transforming our lives but by creating fundamentally new ways of value creation and increased prosperity focused on the creation of a more sustainable future for us all. To achieve these opportunities requires collective effort by governments, businesses, and individuals to ensure that economic, social and political challenges such as energy security, job creation and addressing energy poverty are overcome as part of our journey to a more sustainable world. The Energy Institute’s is focused on “Creating a better energy future for our members and society by acceleration a just global energy transition to net zero” and, within this context, is proud to be working in partnership with KPMG to develop its newly established ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub. There is much that can be done to improve the regulatory, technical and investment/financial inertia directed at accelerating sustainable business practices with the SE Asia region and we look forward to assisting in the process of building the capacity required to build appropriate pathways towards the more sustainable future we all strive for”.
Dr John Lee, Maybank Singapore Country Chief Executive Officer & CEO, said, “Maybank Singapore is proud to be part of this forward step in driving our leadership position in the sustainability agenda through this joint partnership. This is also aligned with the Maybank Group’s approach to develop strategic alliances with like-minded sustainability advocates to facilitate knowledge exchange in today’s business environment, where ESG is increasingly an important agenda for many companies. We will continue to advocate sustainable financing solutions that can drive down emissions. As a leading bank in Asia and as the only bank with an omnipresence in all 10 ASEAN countries, we want to drive long-term value creation for businesses and the community, remaining true to our mission of Humanising Financial Services. As decarbonisation is a transition journey for many, we will help potential clients to navigate their ESG journey with us to create a sustainable future yet meet their business objectives at the same time.”
Associate Professor Lee Poh Seng, Director of NUS Energy Studies Institute, said, “ESI is thrilled to partner with KPMG on this important initiative. Together, we will be able to leverage our collective expertise to tackle some of the most pressing energy challenges of our time, including decarbonization and the development of new digital tools and methodologies. We believe that this collaboration will expand the range of opportunities, and depth of impact we have in accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy future for Singapore and beyond.”
Professor Sumit Agarwal, Managing Director of Sustainable and Green Finance Institute at NUS, said, “SGFIN enthusiastically supports this crucial initiative as a part of NUS’ broader push towards a more sustainable world. Data-driven research is an important driver of potential innovations, tools and solutions that will accelerate the development of businesses’ capability in tackling difficult challenges towards a lower-carbon society.”
About the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles are becoming critical for companies not only from regulatory and compliant perspectives, but primarily as a key business imperative. To help provide pathways and solutions for decarbonisation, the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub is working with companies across ASEAN countries in a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model. It also works with both governments and corporate sector to create sustainable financing models and facilitate large scale ESG transformation.
The coverage extends to projects across the three identified targets sectors with high carbon footprint Energy, Transport & Logistics, and Built Environment & Real Estate. Some examples of projects that the Hub has started to work on include: replacing diesel with renewable energy, setting up funds for early retirement of coal fired power projects under the Energy Transition Mechanism, developing pilot green hydrogen projects in emerging markets, setting up solar and wind energy platforms, developing use cases for smart & sustainable cities, advising on emerging technologies including carbon capture and storage, and facilitating the raising of green and sustainable finance for environmentally friendly projects.
The Hub will help businesses operationalise decarbonisation by using strategies like pursuing energy efficiency and transitioning to renewable energy. Companies can also gain regulatory agility through introducing new policies and technologies internally, as well as carrying out training programmes.
The Hub will also assist in forming and nurturing climate-focused partnerships across supply chains – such as working with smaller suppliers – in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the final product. Finally, it can support companies in gathering data, leveraging technology to detect patterns of consumption and emissions, demonstrating progress made in decarbonisation programmes, as well as gaining the trust of stakeholders.
| Company | Roles and involvement |
| KPMG in Singapore | KPMG, a leading professional services firm, will work together with BV, Maybank and NUS to originate decarbonisation opportunities. KPMG will also build ecosystem capabilities in decarbonisation, ESG and transformation by running workshops for businesses on knowledge sharing and industry best practices. To aid companies looking to scale in global competitiveness while being relevant locally, KPMG will enable access of participating companies to its global network of experts on ESG and decarbonisation. Finally, KPMG will also afford participating companies its anticipatory thought leadership in energy diversification, operational decarbonisation, supply chain management and sustainable finance as well as its digital tools backed by artificial intelligence and blockchain to capture, measure and verify emissions data these tools and insights are expected to help companies project long-term to take advantage of upcoming trends in their business models and decarbonisation pathways. |
| Bureau Veritas | Bureau Veritas (BV) a world leader in testing, inspection and certification services, will collaborate with KPMG in providing industry players end to end solutions in their decarbonisation projects. Through its BV Green Line of Services and solutions dedicated to Sustainability, Bureau Veritas supports its clients to be more efficient, more methodical and more trustworthy in their journey towards more sustainable business and a more sustainable world. In this framework, the Group will provide its multi-disciplinary technical expertise to develop and implement decarbonisation roadmaps with best industry practices to deliver transparency, credibility and traceability. As an independent third party, BV’s accreditation with numerous international sustainability certifications such as ISO14001, ISO45001, ISO14025, ISO14064 and GHG Protocol, as well as carbon offset standards such as Verra, Gold Standard, CDM and GCC, empower clients to implement and measure outcomes that demonstrate the impact of achieving their sustainability objectives. |
| Energy Institute | Energy Institute (EI) will work closely with the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub, through the MOU, with a view to assisting in the provision of quality continuous professional development including, where appropriate, links to its technical and operational guidance activities related to decarbonisation and the energy transition. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, EI is the internationally recognised chartered professional membership body for people who work across the world of energy. Its purpose is “to create a better energy future for its members and society at large by accelerating a just global energy transition to net zero” with three core objectives underpinning its activities:-
|
| Maybank Singapore | Maybank Singapore (Maybank) will work together with KPMG to mobilise funding for low carbon and green projects originated by the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub. This joint partnership underlies the importance of advancing sustainable financing as there is a growing pressing need to mitigate climate change impact. According to a 2017 United Nations Environment Programme report, annual flows of green finance in Southeast Asia were estimated at US$40 billion, and an estimated US$200 billion green investment is needed in ASEAN per year till 2030 against climate change effects to protect the people’s livelihoods and ASEAN economies. As green financing is key to unlocking a sustainable future which is aligned with the Maybank Group commitment to mobilise RM80 billion in sustainable finance by 2025 to support the transition to a less carbon intensive economy, Maybank Group has as of 30 September 2022, mobilised about RM29 billion out of which 59 per cent of the green financing was from Singapore. Maybank has also been involved in arranging and participating in Shariah compliant sustainability-linked loans and green loans, totalling S$4.5 billion. Additionally, Maybank has facilitated Worldwide Hotels Group’s first green loan facility worth S$405 million for its new hotel and commercial development, marking one of the largest bilateral green financing for a hospitality asset in Singapore. |
| National University of Singapore | National University of Singapore (NUS) will collaborate in joint research and consultancy projects of mutual interest in the areas of energy technology assessment, decarbonisation pathways, carbon pricing & climate finance, development and enhancement of digital tools, and life-cycle accounting methodologies. The Energy Studies Institute (ESI) will bring its deep industry research and modelling capabilities to develop innovative frameworks that will help transform the sectors. The Sustainable and Green Finance Institute (SGFIN) will bring its rigorous research approach to provide insights regarding the commercial value of decarbonisation. |
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KPMG in Singapore is part of a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 143 countries and territories with more than 265,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.
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Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has more than 82,000 employees located in nearly 1,600 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its 400,000 clients improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.
Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the CAC 40 ESG, CAC Next 20 and SBF 120 indices. Compartment A, ISIN code FR 0006174348, stock symbol: BVI.
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The Energy Institute (EI) is the chartered professional membership body for people who work across the world of energy. Our purpose is to create a better energy future for our members and society by accelerating a just global energy transition to net zero. We do this by attracting, developing and equipping the diverse future energy workforce; informing energy decision-making through convening expertise and advice; and enabling industry and consumers to make energy lower carbon, safer and more efficient.
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Maybank is among Asia’s leading banking groups and South East Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets. Maybank Group has an international network of over 2,600 branches in 18 countries including all 10 ASEAN countries, with more than 42,000 employees serving customers worldwide.
Maybank Singapore is one of the Group’s largest overseas operations and a Qualifying Full Bank in Singapore. As at 31 December 2021, Maybank’s total assets in Singapore were approximately S$81.5 billion. With strategically located banking branches and over 2,000 employees in Singapore, Maybank is well-positioned to provide highly personalised services and locally-oriented solutions that will deliver more value to customers.
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The Energy Studies Institute (ESI), a research institute under the National University of Singapore, aspires to be the leading institute for strategic research and a global thought leader in energy policy. The institute conducts research on energy policies and their national, regional and global implications, and promotes discussions and advances collective understanding on issues related to energy policy development.
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The Sustainable and Green Finance Institute (SGFIN) is a new institute for research and education in sustainable and green finance established by NUS and supported by MAS. SGFIN develops deep research capabilities in sustainable and green finance with the focus on Asia. SGFIN aims to provide crucial support for the growing needs of regional and global investors, regional households and corporations, and policymakers. In particular, SGFIN plans to establish thought leadership, provide educational programmes, and develop measurement tools to capture the sustainability and environmental impacts of various corporate and investment decisions.
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