There are many important, and exciting, opportunities surrounding the deployment of green finance. As an example, Singapore’s February 2021 budget, delivered within the past few weeks, took a committed stance towards green finance as an ‘enabler’ [of economic recovery] from COVID-19. Singapore has taken the ‘2020 COVID financial crisis’ as an opportunity to recalibrate it’s development strategy to be more firmly grounded in green finance. However, not all ASEAN nations have the financial ambidexterity and resilience of Singapore, and the deep global economic recession introduces a legitimate need to re-examine the preparedness of regional markets to expand their engagement with green finance at this time.

This webinar will unpack market experiences across the ASEAN region on pre-, and post-COVID engagement with green finance. For this I will consider equity, and fixed income segments of the financial market. Given their prominence in local policy discussion, I will begin with the market for Green Bonds. Attention will then shift to equity markets, which are often regarded as a real-time barometer of the economy. I will question if, as some have contested, equities for firms with strong environmental, social and governance performance pre-COVID, later became ‘a good bet’ (and postulate why). A variety of regulatory and policy related considerations will become apparent, from which opportunities and gaps in within the sustainable finance ecosystem can and will be distilled.