About the Green Swan Initiative
Vision
to facilitate Singapore’s shift towards a decarbonised and climate-resilient economy which delivers on the Paris Agreement targets and addresses the urgency of climate change
Mission
to map out and elucidate ongoing developments and efforts, and to provide policy recommendations based on global best practices to guide Singapore’s building of a decarbonised and climate-resilient financial system
About the Initiative
As climate change becomes mainstreamed as one of the defining issues of coming generations, the finance sector has emerged as one of the main actors in bringing about a shift towards a sustainable and decarbonised economy. The emergence of climate risks that are both unpredictable, and likely to cause extreme, cascading impacts, has been termed as green swan events. These green swan events present massive threats to both the environment and to financial stability. As a result, there has been a proliferation of actors and initiatives - spanning policymakers, financial institutions, academia, journalists, the business community, NGOs and civil society groups - aimed at bringing about a shift towards sustainable finance. Such efforts aim, as the Paris Agreement states, to “make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”.
These developments come in the context of the highly-financialised nature of the global economy. As a result, sustainable finance matters not just from the perspective of the financial world but also because it will have major implications for both human society and the environment. At the same time, the world of finance can often seem technical and exclusive to the general public, which has just as much stake in a sustainable and stable financial system.
The Green Swan Initiative aims to step into this void to serve as a knowledge hub for the paradigm shift towards sustainable finance in Singapore. We envision the Initiative playing a bridging role between the financial sector and the public in two ways. First, it maps out ongoing efforts of the sustainable finance landscape in Singapore and the actors thereof, situating these amidst global developments and best practices. Second, the initiative seeks to engender a broader and more climate-oriented public understanding of the stakes involved in the shift towards sustainable finance. Our hope is that this can be a contribution to making ongoing efforts in Singapore towards sustainable finance as comprehensive and rigorous as possible.
Co-Founders
Bertrand Seah
Bertrand is currently a research assistant at the Asia Research Institute in the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is deeply interested in environmental politics, and has been involved with several climate groups, including fossil fuel divestment in NUS, 350SG, and SG Climate Rally. He wrote the concluding chapter, “Another Garden City is Possible: A Plan for a Post-Carbon Singapore” in the recently-published book, “Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene”.
Eden Teoh
Eden is a lawyer by training. She believes that public will and corporate commitment to a sustainable future are key to effective climate action. She advocated for coordinated governmental climate policy in her previous role as a parliamentary legislative assistant. In her free time, she volunteers with local NGO Climate Conversations.
Li Xingyi
Xingyi works in corporate law and is passionate about engaging the corporate and financial world to achieve climate justice. Her thesis “Options for a Human Rights Based Approach to Climate Change Litigation in Southeast Asia” has been accepted for publication in the Singapore Law Review 2020-2021.
The Green Swan Initiative would not have been possible without the support of our incredible research team and collaborators past and present. We remain grateful for the invaluable contributions of our research assistants, Bernadette Gostelow, Brandon Lam, Darshini Revichandren, Dennis Tan, Koh Hong Kai, Leanne Chee, Tan Pei Han, Yin Chuan and Zhang Wen, as well as our web developer Carina Lim.