Asia’s climate finance priorities are shifting beyond emissions cuts, banks say

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Climate finance is no longer just about cutting emissions. As Asia faces rising heat, floods, and energy shocks, banks are now looking at two urgent questions: how to finance climate resilience, and how to protect economies from volatile fossil fuel markets. And CNA's Ilakkiya Selvaraju joins us now reporting from Eco-Sperity Week at Marina Bay Sands, where DBS and HSBC say the region needs faster capital deployment.

[00:00:31]That's right, uh Grace. Thank you so much. For banks, the climate challenge is now twofold. First, helping economies adapt to the physical impacts of climate change, from floods and heat waves to rising sea levels. And number two, helping companies reduce their exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets by scaling cleaner energy.

[00:00:54]With um the trajectory that the global society is going from an energy transition point of view, you'll be remiss for governments, societies, and banks like ourselves not to think about climate adaptation and resilience.

[00:01:08]Uh the weather is getting hotter, there are more natural disasters, floods, heat waves, and so on.

[00:01:16]So, these events will present risks to banks as we do our financing. And so, if we can help to finance and assess projects for whether they're more resilient to the changing environments, as well as whether businesses are adapting to changing uh climates, it will really help banks when we assess our financing um to businesses.

[00:01:46]But adaptation projects can be harder to finance because the risks and returns are not always easy to measure. At the same time, energy security is giving renewables a stronger business case, especially for Asia, which remains highly exposed to imported oil and gas.

[00:02:05]I think we underestimate the scale of the demand for energy. It's going to be up to 300 gigawatts globally.

[00:02:11]Just within Asia up to maybe 20-30 gigawatts. Just put in perspective, the Singapore grid is 15 gigawatts. So, the scale of demand is enormous. Now, the challenge we have is that base load energy will take 5 to 8 years to bring on stream. Renewable energy, like for instance a photovoltaic uh solar plant or a wind farm, you could put that on stream in 9 months. Maybe maybe 18 months at worst. So, it really is a highly effective solution and a highly cost-effective solution to both the energy security, the resilience challenge, and the ability to create a cleaner, better world for all of us.

[00:02:56]Well, the message from banks here is clear. Asia's climate transition is no longer just about ambition. It is about deploying capital faster into resilience, cleaner power, and projects that really protect economies from both climate and energy shocks.