Financing the future: Actions for a region in transition

Conflict and climate are two defining challenges of the 21st century, increasingly interconnected in ways that threaten global stability, prosperity, and human security.

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Armed conflicts continue to destabilise entire regions, displacing populations and diverting resources away from development and climate action. At the same time, the accelerating impacts of climate change—rising sea levels, extreme weather, and food insecurity—are exacerbating vulnerabilities, often acting as risk multipliers in already fragile settings.

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In this fragmented geopolitical landscape, where distrust and protectionism often overshadow collaboration, mobilising capital for sustainable development is becoming more difficult than ever at a time when it is needed most.

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As the world faces mounting volatility, leaders must ask: How can they best navigate these intertwined challenges? What resources and data can guide sound investment and policy decisions? And how can trust and multilateralism be reinforced to ensure financial flows align with global priorities?

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This opening fireside chat will delve into the innovative approaches that can help overcome fragmentation and unlock the collaborative potential needed to reach our shared Global Goals.

Asia’s transition to a low-carbon economy is rapidly becoming the critical market opportunity of the decade, with sustainable finance emerging as a catalyst for investment, innovation, and regional economic resilience.  

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Home to the world’s fastest-rising energy demand, the region is witnessing an acceleration in green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, blended finance and emerging innovative mechanisms as market players respond to evolving climate ambitions, changing geopolitics, policy frameworks, and rising consumer expectations.  

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In particular, the emergence of transition finance – which funds carbon-intensive sectors that are committed to credible, time-bound decarbonisation plans – is enabling the region’s notorious hard-to-abate sectors to move progressively towards net zero targets. But what safeguards do we need to ensure these goals are met?

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Meanwhile, the twin engines of technological innovation and strategic financing are making Asia an increasingly attractive destination for global capital, setting new benchmarks how we finance the future amid a multipolar world. How can the region capitalise on this momentum to attract large scale capital? What policy frameworks do we need to mobilise financing for the future?

Sustainable finance taxonomies and aligned disclosure frameworks have become indispensible tools for mobilizing capital for sustainable development outcomes. Yet their potential is constrained by fragmented standards, regulatory delays, and political headwinds that continue to undermine interoperability and effective adoption.

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The proliferation of nearly 500 sustainable finance frameworks worldwide has fueled complexity, with diverging taxonomies risking market fragmentation and complicating investment decisions across renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and transition technologies. Further regulatory delays and uncertainties —most notably from the US where ESG has been politicised—add friction to global harmonisation efforts.

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Against this backdrop, initiatives such as the Asean Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance and the convergence towards the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) IFRS S1 and S2 standards mark important steps toward regional and global alignment. Yet, a key challenge is ensuring industry players can adopt and report to these standards effectively—and that robust reporting drives real impact, not just compliance.

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High quality data also sits at the heart of this effort. Accurate and comprehensive datasets are critical for companies and financial institutions to assess alignment with taxonomy criteria, enable transparent disclosures, and build market confidence.  This plenary convenes leading regulators, standard setters and financial institutions to explore practical pathways and data tools for overcoming these headwinds and fostering collaboration.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping our world at an unprecedented pace, promising enormous potential—and equally dangerous risks —for sustainable development.

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The IMF estimates that AI-driven productivity gains could boost global GDP by up to 4 percent in the next decade. Yet these gains will not be shared evenly. Advanced economies, with stronger infrastructure and greater access to data, stand to benefit far more than developing nations, deepening global divides.

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At the same time, AI is proving transformative in accelerating integrated nature and climate action —optimising water use, revolutionizing agriculture, and powering climate and weather prediction models that could help societies leapfrog traditional limitations. Yet its benefits come at a huge environmental cost – data centres consume vast amounts of electricity, generating emissions and requiring massive volumes of water. The UN warns that by 2027, AI could be consuming 4.2–6.6 billion cubic meters of water annually—a significant burden on already strained resources.

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Debates have emerged whether society should act decisively now to steer this powerful technology toward the common good – or be left to market forces. And if so – what guardrails need to be in place? This plenary debate will put in sharp focus regulatory approaches and how we can meaningfully benefit from AI’s potential and mitigate its risks.

Economic growth has long relied on natural capital, from forests to freshwater systems, but rapid biodiversity loss is now threatening business resilience as much as climate change.

With over half of global GDP moderately or highly dependent on nature, companies face mounting risks from resource scarcity, higher raw material costs and regulatory shifts as governments act swiftly to reverse biodiversity loss. Asia’s biodiversity, apart from boasting the world’s most diverse ecosystems, also provides trillions of dollars in economic value annually.

Striking the balancing between ecological conservation and economic stability will be key for the region.

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) offers a critical framework for companies to assess, disclose and act on the nature-related risks – and opportunities – facing their organisations. Early adopters in Asia, from Singapore’s CDL to Philippines’ PGPC, are leading the way in integrating nature into corporate strategy beyond just compliance.  

These companies and like-minded firms are unlocking value through sustainable resource consumption, value chain decarbonisation, regenerative business models and nature finance. The challenge is securing stakeholder buy-in, replicating these approaches across other organisations and adapting to emerging and rapidly evolving nature risks.

This session convenes TNFD leaders to explore how nature-positive reporting can future-proof businesses – turning non-climate risks into competitive advantages across the organisation.

Asia is at the centre of the climate crisis, warming at double the rate of the global average and increasingly under siege by heatwaves, floods and other climate-related disasters.  

These mounting climate threats, apart from raking up trillions of dollars in economic losses and infrastructure damage, are putting stress on healthcare systems as global warming exacerbates vector-borne diseases and food and water insecurity.

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According to the World Health Organization, climate change is projected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year worldwide between 2030 and 2050 due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress – disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities who lack the resources to guard against these threats.  

Asia urgently needs bolster its climate resiliency through nature-based solutions and early-warning systems, while exploring innovative and inclusion financial models to spur investments in the climate-health nexus – a critically underfunded area.

This session convenes key stakeholders in the planetary and human health space to determine resilient pathways to adapt to rampant climate change, protect human health and livelihood and direct finance to urgent yet overlooked areas.

Asia Pacific’s push towards net-zero economies by 2050 is accelerating policy action to scale carbon removal solutions in the region.  

Singapore is advancing cross-border carbon trade by signing bilateral agreements under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement; Malaysia enacted a Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Act to regulate emissions reduction technologies; and China launched a global CCUS initiative to advance emissions reduction technologies through international collaboration.  

Beyond these initiatives, Asia Pacific is also home to the world’s largest natural carbon sinks, such forests, peatlands and coastal ecosystems, which are critical for nature-based carbon sequestration.

These solutions will need to be scaled swiftly, with carbon removal demand expected to range between one to eight billion tonnes annually by 2050, and responsibly – balancing growth with environmental protection and high-integrity carbon projects.  

This session convenes key experts to discuss the technological innovations, policy frameworks and cross-border partnerships required to unlock Asia Pacific’s vast carbon management potential – while, at the same time, managing inherent risks.