The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank and financial regulator of Singapore, and Google Cloud announced today the launch of the Point Carbon Zero Programme, a new initiative aimed at driving the innovation, incubation, and expansion of climate FinTech solutions in Asia.

Under the new initiative, FinTech firms and solution providers will be invited to submit technological solutions to address a range of climate finance problem statements, with 100 solutions to be shortlisted for further development and tested on their capacity to enable capital flows towards sustainable projects in Asia. The program also aims to empower 10,000 small and medium-sized businesses to set, track and achieve their sustainability goals.

Justin Keeble, Managing Director, Global Sustainability, Google Cloud, said:

“We are in the decade of action on sustainability. The Point Carbon Zero Programme is a great example of the power of combining collaboration and technology to leverage shared ESG data that will drive better, data-driven decision-making.”

The new program is a collaboration under MAS’ Project Greenprint, which was launched in 2020 in order to help mobilize capital for green and sustainable finance by harnessing technology and data and create a more transparent, trusted, and efficient ESG ecosystem. In 2021, MAS also announced an initiative to partner with financial technology providers and finance industry participants on the development of ESG and sustainable-focused data platforms.

Dr. Darian McBain, Chief Sustainability Officer, MAS, said:

“Singapore’s financial and FinTech sectors can play a pivotal role in the efficient channeling of private capital toward sustainable projects and businesses focusing on their long-term sustainability impact. The effective employment of technology allows us to greatly enhance the quality, availability and comparability of the ESG data needed to facilitate these financial flows, to accelerate our transition to a low carbon economy.”

Key features of the initiative include mentorship and funding for shortlisted participants, access to data which can be used to refine the accuracy of their solutions in measuring sectoral and corporate-level emissions, and access to Google Cloud’s Carbon Sense Suite, which can allow them to track and reduce their carbon footprint associated with their cloud usage, as well as the facilitation of data sharing to support financial institutions’ sustainable finance and investment decisions. 

To support the programme, Google Cloud will launch an open-source cloud platform dedicated to climate finance and participants will be invited to deploy their solutions there. The platform will also enable FinTechs to collaborate with financial institutions to build, host and scale FinTech solutions.

Sherie Ng, Country Director, Singapore and Malaysia, Google Cloud, said:

“ESG Programmes are a priority for the majority of organisations across the world, but less than 2 in 10 of these firms are currently able to measure and optimise their efforts. In collaboration with MAS, the Point Carbon Zero Programme aims to combine the collective powers of the industry with Google Cloud’s capabilities and innovation ecosystem to orchestrate impactful climate action.”