More firms in carbon trade setting up shop in Singapore

Grace Chua Straits Times 28 Aug 10;

MORE companies trading in carbon offsets and those financing emissions reduction projects are setting up shop in Singapore.

More than 30 such carbon-related firms have done so in the last three years or so.

The trade in carbon credits, worth US$153 billion (S$208 billion) globally last year, is driven by various requirements to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. These include cap-and-trade regulations in Europe and countries scrambling to fulfil carbon emissions obligations under the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday for the Carbon Forum Asia conference in October, Sustainable Energy Association Singapore chairman Edwin Khew said more firms were setting up here because of access to carbon offset projects, as well as suitable legal and financial services.

Access to research and development will also improve with the establishment of a 50-ha cleantech park near Nanyang Technological University, he added.

One company that has moved here in recent months is the climate sourcing arm of European energy company EON.

Ms Julie McLaughlin, South-east Asia regional director for EON Climate & Renewables, said Singapore's stable regime allowed for investment in renewable energy. She added that it was a convenient location for meetings with other carbon companies and project directors.

In South-east Asia, she said, the firm was eyeing 'win-win-win' projects with a greenhouse-gas abatement component, such as bio-gas and capturing usable methane from landfills.

More than 2,300 offset projects are registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, up from 700 or so in 2007. They are concentrated in Asia, with nearly 70 per cent in China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Other firms that have based themselves here include Climate Resources Exchange (CRX), Carbon Conservation, Sindicatum Carbon Capital, and Asia Carbon Exchange.

Their activities include financing, developing, consulting on and managing clean energy and low-carbon projects in the region.

Singapore first stated its aim to be a carbon trading hub in 2007, when it also put $350 million into the clean energy industry and introduced incentives such as tax holidays for carbon firms to set up shop here.

But for all that, few carbon credits are actually traded here, noted CRX chief executive Vinod Kesava.

The Singapore Mercantile Exchange, a new commodities exchange here which was touted as a carbon trading platform, will not trade carbon credits yet when it goes live on Tuesday.

And in last month's auction by the Asia Carbon Exchange, just 250,000 carbon credits were traded, with a market value of €2.1 million (S$3.6 million).

In order for carbon trading to take off here, said CRX's Mr Kesava, Singapore must figure out whether to position itself as an Annex 1 country, with binding greenhouse gas targets, or as a non-Annex 1 country - in which case it should be developing more local carbon reduction projects.

Not all is lost, he added, as Singapore has room to develop local projects, and has experience in trading other commodities such as oil and gas.