DBS and OCBC, two of  Southeast Asia’s largest banks, and Hong Leong, a property developer, were called out through Substack recently over a ‘green loan’ they had provided for the development of a residential project in the Tengah area in Singapore. The S$692 million loan for the development would lead to the clearing of a forest in Tengah, home to various native flora and fauna.

In recent years, with the growing global awareness of climate change, many organisations have faced increased pressure from both the public and government to adopt more environmentally sustainable practices. This article explores Frank Weikai Li, Assistant Professor of Finance’s research into how consumers affect an organisation’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) behaviour.

Cities may well be economic powerhouses, but their growth has often come at the expense of nature. Paved landscapes and towering structures typically dominate urban spaces, leaving little room for the natural greenery, and this has made cities particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - from heat stress to extreme weather events like flooding. In response to these challenges, the concept of 'regenerative cities' has emerged as a way to build urban resilience.

Despite the growing urgency to bridge the gap between climate action goals and reality, much still has to be done. According to the UN Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report, emissions from 2023 put the world on a path to a temperature rise of around 2.7°C by 2100, almost twice the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C at the end of the century.

Asian cities like Singapore, Bangkok, Manila and Ho Chi Minh face very real risks of huge economic losses should their adaptation measures be inadequate. Singapore faces up to 20.2% gross domestic product (GDP) loss in a two-degree warmer scenario, a warning of how adversely megacities will be affected.

This article is featured in Special Feature: Raising Cities

The world is fast approaching its tipping point for climate change and current indications suggest this will happen sooner rather than later. A key target set in Paris in 2015 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), aiming to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, now seems like a pipe dream with scientists predicting that the limit will be reached in the 2030s.