© Jiri Rezac
China and Singapore are making progress to advance joint initiatives in sustainable finance, including making their green taxonomies interoperable and promoting collaboration on financing and technology.
More than 40 participants from the public and private sector joined a meeting in July of the Green Finance Taskforce (GFTF), a joint initiative of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC).
“The GFTF remains committed to jointly develop concrete and tangible solutions to accelerate the growth of sustainable finance to support real economy needs for Asia’s net zero transition,” said Gillian Tan, chief sustainability officer at MAS.
Regulators in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are increasingly recognising that climate risks pose a threat to financial stability and are seeking to address the impact through regulation and oversight, the UN has said.
MAS and the PBoC created the green finance taskforce in 2023 and announced last year they would more closely align their green taxonomies and develop a new platform for sharing companies’ environmental data.
The two countries said they are strengthening their partnership to make their taxonomies interoperable, with China’s OCBC Bank arranging the country’s first syndicated loan aligned with the taxonomy in June.
“These efforts aim to further harmonise sustainable finance standards and facilitate greater cross-border investments,” they said.
The multi-jurisdiction common ground taxonomy (M-CGT) is a set of environmental objectives and criteria which are a reference for financial intuitions and investors to determine what is a “green” investment and is designed to help facilitate cross-border financial flows.
The two countries noted that Singapore-based issuers had shown interest at marketing roadshows for green panda bonds and for aligning debt financing with the taxonomy.
The taskforce meeting also discussed work on how technology can help to monitor emissions and provide green financing solutions, as well as potential collaboration in biodiversity and nature financing and opportunities for developing green finance in Shanghai.
This page was last updated July 28, 2025
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Emma Thomasson is a British journalist, consultant and trainer based in Berlin. She is an expert in economics, politics, business and technology. She previously worked for Reuters as a correspondent and bureau chief in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Africa and the UK.
