Glossary

Singapore's regulator of companies, business structures and public accountants, and joint architect with SGX RegCo of the climate reporting and assurance roadmap. Its published requirements timeline is the single most useful page for working out what your company must report and when. ACRA's Interim Sustainability Standards Committee is developing Singapore's own sustainability disclosure standards.

The 2013-2014 IPCC assessment whose 100-year global warming potentials are written into Singapore law. The Carbon Pricing Act First Schedule (AR5 values, in force from 1 January 2024) sets CO2 = 1, CH4 = 28, N2O = 265, SF6 = 23,500, NF3 = 16,100, HFC-23 = 12,400, HFC-32 = 677 and HFC-134a = 1,300. Singapore's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory also uses AR5. Note AR5 gives methane two values: 28 for non-fossil sources and 30 for fossil sources such as natural gas leakage.

The most recent IPCC assessment, whose 100-year global warming potentials differ from AR5: methane 27.0 non-fossil and 29.8 fossil, N2O 273, SF6 24,300, NF3 17,400. The GHG Protocol recommends using the latest values, which currently means AR6. This creates a genuine tension in Singapore: AR6 is recommended practice, but AR5 is what the Carbon Pricing Act requires, so say plainly which basis each number uses.

The part of the Paris Agreement that lets countries cooperate on emissions reductions and transfer the results between themselves. It is the legal basis for Singapore's international carbon credit framework: credits used against Singapore's carbon tax must be Article 6-authorised. As of the register's 31 August 2026 update, Singapore had signed or substantively concluded Implementation Agreements with eleven partner countries: Bhutan, Chile, Ghana, Mongolia, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Three of those are ASEAN member states.

The agency that regulates the built environment in Singapore, including green building certification through Green Mark and the Mandatory Energy Improvement regime for energy-intensive existing buildings. If your emissions come mostly from a building you own or occupy, BCA's rules are likely to bite before any listing rule does.

The historical year against which you measure progress on your emissions targets. The GHG Protocol expects you to document a recalculation policy with a significance threshold, and to restate the base year when structural changes, methodology changes or discovery of significant errors would otherwise make the comparison meaningless. Importantly, you do NOT recalculate for organic growth or decline: if you simply sold more, the base year stands.

The average carbon dioxide emitted per unit of net generation by Singapore's five most recently built power plants. It is a project-baseline construct inherited from carbon-crediting methodology, used to judge whether a new project displaces emissions. It is NOT an alternative Scope 2 factor. Because newer plants are more efficient, the Build Margin usually sits below the Grid Emission Factor, and the 2020 value of 0.4022 looks deceptively close to the 2024 GEF of 0.402 despite being a different metric for a different year.

A global environmental disclosure platform through which companies answer standardised questionnaires on climate, water and forests, mainly at the request of investors and large customers. It is a disclosure channel rather than a reporting standard, but its questionnaires shape what many companies actually measure. GRI maintains a published linkage document mapping its standards to the CDP climate and energy questionnaire, most recently dated October 2025.

A Singapore-based carbon exchange and marketplace for high-quality carbon credits, backed by DBS, GenZero, Mizuho, SGX Group and Standard Chartered. On 26 August 2026 CIX and Carbonplace announced their intent to combine, with integration expected to complete in the first quarter of 2027, subject to final regulatory approvals; both brands continue during the integration.

A common unit that lets different greenhouse gases be added together. Each gas is multiplied by its global warming potential so that one tonne of CO2e means the same warming effect as one tonne of carbon dioxide. Watch the difference between CO2 and CO2e: Singapore's published Grid Emission Factor is CO2 only, so labelling it CO2e without adding methane and nitrous oxide understates your emissions.

The law that creates Singapore's carbon tax and its measurement, reporting and verification regime. Its First Schedule fixes the statutory global warming potentials on an AR5 basis, in force from 1 January 2024. The detailed obligations, including monitoring plans, emissions reports, verification and auditor accreditation, sit in the Carbon Pricing (Measurement, Reporting and Verification) Regulations 2018, which are free to read on Singapore Statutes Online.

Balancing your emissions with an equivalent quantity of credits so the stated net is zero for a defined subject and period. It is a weaker claim than net zero: carbon neutrality can in principle be achieved largely by buying credits, whereas net zero requires deep absolute reductions first and permits only removals for the residual. The governing international standard is now ISO 14068:2026, which on 11 September 2026 replaced the withdrawn ISO 14068-1:2023.

Singapore's price on greenhouse gas emissions, the first such tax in Southeast Asia. It applies to facilities directly emitting at least 25,000 tonnes of CO2e a year, around 50 facilities covering roughly 70 percent of national emissions, or about 80 percent once fuel excise duties on transport fuels are counted. The rate was S$5 per tonne from 2019 to 2023, S$25 for 2024 and 2025, and was raised to S$45 with effect from 1 January 2026 for 2026 and 2027, with a stated intention of reaching S$50 to S$80 by 2030. There are no sectoral carve-outs from coverage, but this does not mean one uniform effective price: under the Transition Framework, emissions-intensive trade-exposed facilities receive transitory allowances covering a portion of their emissions.

The accounting step under Article 6 in which the host country that generated a carbon credit adds those emissions back to its own national total when the credit is transferred abroad. It exists to stop two countries counting the same tonne towards their climate targets. Singapore requires it for credits used against its carbon tax. Sometimes written in error as correspondence adjustment; corresponding adjustment is the correct term.

Reporting both how sustainability issues affect your business financially and how your business affects the world. The phrase is a European term of art from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and its ESRS standards; it is not a term used by GRI or by the ISSB. GRI and the ISSB instead describe a two-pillar structure in which impact reporting and financial reporting sit on an equal footing and complement each other.

Singapore's agency for industrial investment and enterprise development, and a route through which decarbonisation support for industry is delivered.

NEA's online portal for submitting Monitoring Plans and Emissions Reports under the Carbon Pricing Act. It is also the submission channel for Energy Conservation Act obligations and for certain water and sulphur dioxide submissions, so it is the single regulatory front door for most industrial environmental reporting in Singapore. Key deadlines: the Monitoring Plan is due by 31 December of the year following the trigger year, and the Emissions Report by 30 June of the year following the reporting period.

A structured hunt for cost-effective energy savings carried out by a certified assessor. Required of registered corporations under the Energy Conservation Act in defined circumstances.

A facility whose production is both emissions-intensive and exposed to international competition. Under Singapore's carbon tax Transition Framework, EITE facilities receive transitory allowances covering part of their emissions, so they do not pay the headline rate on every tonne.

Singapore's electricity and gas regulator and the publisher of Singapore Energy Statistics, which is where the Grid Emission Factor, the Build Margin and the upstream fugitive methane factor come from. A practical warning: EMA's website blocks automated access, so this site cites the National Climate Change Secretariat and data.gov.sg for the same figures where possible.

The principle that whoever puts a product on the market remains responsible for it at end of life, and must fund or arrange its collection and treatment. Singapore's regulated e-waste system works this way: producers have had to register with NEA since 1 January 2020, the collection system commenced 1 July 2021, retailers must offer free one-for-one take-back on delivery, and retailers with floor area of 300 square metres or more must provide in-store collection. ALBA E-waste Smart Recycling was the scheme operator for the 2021 to 2026 licence period; the current licence period could not be confirmed and should be checked with NEA.

A conversion rate that turns an activity into emissions, such as kilograms of CO2 per litre of diesel or per kWh of electricity. It is applied to activity data, meaning the measured quantity of the thing you did: litres of fuel, kWh of electricity, tonnes of waste. Choosing the right factor matters more than arithmetic precision. IFRS S2 deliberately does not prescribe emission factors; it requires you to use factors that best represent your activity and to disclose which factors you used, which is why Singapore's grid factor is a disclosure input rather than a legally fixed value.

The law requiring large energy users to manage and report their energy use. A corporation must register if it consumes more than 54 terajoules a year at a single site, in at least two of the three preceding years, in manufacturing and manufacturing-related services, in the supply of electricity, gas, steam, compressed air and chilled water for air-conditioning, or in water supply and waste management. Registration must be applied for within six months of meeting the criteria.

The government agency that funds and supports local enterprise capability building, and the main source of grants for companies preparing for sustainability reporting. Important timing note: the Enterprise Development Grant, Market Readiness Assistance and Productivity Solutions Grant cease on 29 September 2026 and are replaced from 30 September 2026 by a single EDGE Grant, with Sustainability as one of eight covered business areas. Separately, the Sustainability Reporting Grant, launched with EDB on 1 November 2024, covers up to 30 percent of qualifying costs capped at S$150,000, including external assurance, for a company's first ISSB-aligned report.

A consolidation approach under which you count emissions in proportion to your ownership stake, so a 40 percent shareholding brings in 40 percent of that operation's emissions. It is by far the least used of the three approaches. The GHG Protocol's December 2025 progress update notes that only about 2 percent of companies disclosing to CDP in 2023 chose it, and proposes eliminating it in the revised Corporate Standard.

The average carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity supplied by Singapore's grid, published by the Energy Market Authority in Singapore Energy Statistics. The latest published value is 0.402 kg CO2 per kWh for 2024, down from 0.412 in 2023 and a peak of 0.417 in 2022. Two traps: the unit is kg CO2, not kg CO2e, so methane and nitrous oxide must be added separately; and this figure is the Operating Margin, which is a different series from the Build Margin.

A gas in the atmosphere that traps heat and so warms the planet. Corporate reporting normally covers the seven gas families named in the Kyoto Protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). You care because almost every disclosure rule, carbon tax and target is expressed in greenhouse gases, not just in carbon dioxide.

The most widely used set of corporate carbon accounting rules, and the origin of the Scope 1, 2 and 3 language. Its Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (2004 revised edition) is the measurement standard named in both IFRS S2 and SGX Practice Note 7.6. Note a common citation error: that 2004 text covers six gases, and nitrogen trifluoride was added by a separate 2013 amendment. The standard is being rewritten, with a consolidated draft for public consultation estimated for the second quarter of 2027 and a published revised standard for the fourth quarter of 2028, developed jointly with ISO as a single dual-branded standard.

The oldest and most widely used sustainability reporting framework, aimed at a broad set of stakeholders rather than investors alone. Its standards are free to download with no registration. The current set comprises 41 standards: three Universal (GRI 1, 2 and 3, effective 1 January 2023), four Sector Standards, and 34 Topic Standards. To claim a report is in accordance with the GRI Standards you must meet all nine requirements in GRI 1: Foundation 2021, including a content index with twelve prescribed elements; miss one and you may only claim the weaker with reference to. GRI has run its ASEAN Regional Hub from Singapore since 3 September 2019.

GRI's new climate standard, published 26 June 2025 and effective 1 January 2027, with earlier adoption encouraged. It carries ten disclosures covering transition and adaptation plans, just transition, reduction targets, Scopes 1, 2 and 3, intensity, removals in the value chain and carbon credits. When it takes effect it withdraws Disclosures 305-1 to 305-5 of GRI 305: Emissions 2016 and Disclosure 201-2. GRI and the ISSB confirmed on 26 June 2025 that a single set of IFRS S2 emissions disclosures can satisfy both standards, provided you use the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004) and include a cross-reference.

The multiplier that converts a mass of some greenhouse gas into CO2e, over a stated time horizon (normally 100 years). The number depends on which IPCC assessment report you use, so two companies can report different totals from identical activity data. Always state your GWP source: Singapore's Carbon Pricing Act sets AR5 values in law, while the GHG Protocol recommends the newer AR6 values.

The digital sustainability reporting platform that grew out of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Greenprint, launched on 16 November 2023 and operated by Greenprint Technologies. It lets smaller companies generate a basic emissions report by pulling their own utilities data, with consent, from the Energy Market Authority and PUB and converting it into Scope 1 and Scope 2 figures. It has also absorbed ESGenome, the disclosure portal launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and SGX Group on 12 September 2022 around a baseline of 27 SGX core environmental, social and governance metrics; in July 2026 Gprnt partnered with SGX Group and ESGenome was wholly migrated onto the Gprnt platform.

Singapore's green building certification scheme, designed for a tropical climate. Green Mark 2021 took effect on 1 November 2021; its 2nd Edition has been in force since 1 January 2024 and from 1 June 2024 all projects are assessed under it, including projects whose applications were submitted before that date. It assesses energy efficiency including Super Low Energy paths, whole life carbon, resilience, intelligence, health and wellbeing, and maintainability. Separately, BCA's Mandatory Energy Improvement regime has since 30 September 2025 required energy-intensive existing buildings of at least 5,000 square metres to audit and cut their energy use intensity by 10 percent.

The whole-of-government sustainability roadmap that sets Singapore's national environmental targets for this decade. Published targets include planting one million more trees, at least 2 gigawatt-peak of solar by 2030 (1.5 gigawatt-peak by 2025), greening 80 percent of buildings by 2030, 80 percent of new buildings to be Super Low Energy from 2030, 60,000 electric vehicle charging points by 2030, and reducing waste sent to landfill per capita per day by 30 percent by 2030, with an interim 20 percent reduction by 2026. Note the waste target is an intensity target, not an absolute tonnage cut.

A bond whose proceeds are earmarked for environmentally beneficial projects. Singapore issues sovereign green bonds under the Singapore Green Bond Framework, first published in 2022 with a second edition on 23 January 2025 aligned to the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy and supported by an independent second party opinion. The Government has committed to issue up to S$35 billion of green bonds by 2030, financing projects such as the Cross Island Line and the Jurong Region Line.

A carbon credit that a Singapore taxable facility may surrender in place of paying carbon tax, for up to 5 percent of its taxable emissions, from 1 January 2024. To qualify, the reduction or removal must have occurred between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2030 and must satisfy Singapore's published eligibility criteria: eight in total, being seven environmental integrity principles (not double counted, additional, real, quantified and verified, permanent, no net harm, no leakage) plus compliance with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Eligibility lists are agreed bilaterally and differ by host country.

The accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation. The same foundation hosts the ISSB, whose sustainability standards are numbered IFRS S1 (general requirements) and IFRS S2 (climate).

The overarching ISSB standard. It requires disclosure of material information about all sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably affect a company's cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital over the short, medium or long term, organised under four pillars inherited from the TCFD: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. It is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, with earlier application permitted as long as IFRS S2 is applied at the same time.

The ISSB's climate standard, applied together with IFRS S1 and effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024. It covers physical and transition risks, scenario analysis, transition plan information, Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions measured using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004), and industry-based metrics. Targeted amendments issued on 11 December 2025, effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, add jurisdictional relief on global warming potential values and flexibility on financed emissions.

The long-standing international standard used by practitioners assuring greenhouse gas statements, issued by the IAASB. It is being overtaken by the broader ISSA 5000. Note that reports of its formal withdrawal, and of a Singapore equivalent designated SSSA 5000, could not be confirmed against a primary source in the research behind this site, so treat any such claim as unverified until you see the IAASB or ISCA pronouncement itself.

The body behind ISO 14064 (greenhouse gas quantification and verification), ISO 14067 (product carbon footprint) and ISO 14001 (environmental management systems).

The international standard family for quantifying, reporting and verifying greenhouse gases, in three parts: Part 1 for organisations, Part 2 for projects, and Part 3 (published 15 April 2019) for validation and verification of greenhouse gas statements at organisation, project and product level. Singapore has adopted all three as SS ISO 14064-1/-2/-3:2021, published by Enterprise Singapore and sold through the Singapore Standards eShop. A guidance document, ISO/TS 14064-4:2025, was published on 25 November 2025 and functionally replaces the withdrawn ISO/TR 14069:2013.

The organisation-level greenhouse gas inventory standard, published 19 December 2018. Rather than Scope 1, 2 and 3, it uses direct emissions plus five categories of indirect emissions, six in total, and calls what the GHG Protocol names operational boundaries reporting boundaries instead. It is programme-neutral, meaning it does not tie you to any one scheme. Note that ISO opened a review in October 2024 and the standard now sits at the stage International Standard to be revised.

The international standard for quantifying and reporting the carbon footprint of a product, published 20 August 2018 and adopted in Singapore as SS ISO 14067:2024. The Singapore Accreditation Council expanded its accreditation scheme to cover product carbon footprint verification against this standard with effect from 4 July 2025. Note the standard itself is at ISO's stage International Standard to be revised, so expect a new edition.

The carbon neutrality standard, formally titled Climate change management - Transition to net zero - Part 1: Carbon neutrality. It has been withdrawn: on 11 September 2026 it was replaced by ISO 14068:2026, Climate change management - Carbon neutrality, a 38-page first edition. If a supplier, consultant or claim still cites ISO 14068-1:2023, they are citing a withdrawn standard.

The IAASB's overarching sustainability assurance standard, issued in November 2024 and effective for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026, with early adoption encouraged. It is framework-agnostic, meaning it works with any suitable reporting framework, covers both limited and reasonable assurance, and applies to voluntary as well as mandatory engagements. Singapore will accept a Singapore standard equivalent to ISSA 5000 for its mandatory Scope 1 and 2 assurance.

The board within the IFRS Foundation that writes the global baseline of investor-focused sustainability reporting standards, namely IFRS S1 and IFRS S2. It was created to end the proliferation of competing voluntary frameworks, and has absorbed the work of the SASB standards, the TCFD recommendations and the Transition Plan Taskforce. Singapore's own draft standards, SFRS S1 and SFRS S2, are built directly on the ISSB standards.

The lighter of the two assurance levels. The practitioner performs fewer procedures and expresses a negative conclusion, along the lines of nothing has come to our attention to suggest the numbers are materially misstated. It is the level Singapore will require over Scope 1 and 2 emissions: from financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2029 for listed issuers and 1 January 2032 for large non-listed companies. ACRA requires the work to be done either by an audit firm registered with ACRA or by a testing, inspection and certification firm accredited by the Singapore Accreditation Council. ACRA's timeline page does not name the assurance standards those firms must apply, so treat any fixed list of accepted standards as unconfirmed.

Calculating purchased-electricity emissions using the average emissions intensity of the grid you physically sit on, ignoring any green contracts you have signed. In Singapore that means your kilowatt-hours multiplied by the national Grid Emission Factor. It answers the question: what did the grid actually emit to serve me? Do not confuse it with the market-based method, which reflects what you chose to buy.

Singapore's central bank and integrated financial regulator, and the driver of sustainable finance policy. Its outputs include the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy, the Guidelines on Environmental Risk Management for banks, insurers and asset managers, the Finance for Net Zero Action Plan, the sustainable bond and loan grant schemes, and the Gprnt data platform.

The Energy Market Authority's measure of methane released per unit of net electricity generated, published in kg CH4 per kWh (0.00212 for 2020). Two cautions: the unit is methane mass, not CO2e, so it must be multiplied by a methane global warming potential before it can be added to any total; and the Energy Market Authority defines it over the same five most recently built plants as the Build Margin, so it is not a grid-average factor and should not be multiplied by your whole-grid consumption.

A regime that can compel an energy-intensive facility with poor efficiency performance to commission an assessment and implement the measures it identifies, rather than leaving action voluntary.

The NEA scheme requiring companies that supply regulated goods in Singapore with annual turnover above S$10 million, and that import or use specified packaging, to report to NEA each year. A submission has two parts: a packaging data report giving the weight of packaging by material type and form, and a 3R plan setting out reduce, reuse and recycle initiatives with targets for the next three years. It is the data-gathering step ahead of a fuller packaging producer responsibility framework.

The ministry responsible for Singapore's environmental and climate policy, overseeing NEA, PUB and the National Environment agenda, and the parent of the Resource Sustainability Act regime. It is the policy layer that sits above the agencies that actually collect your reports.

Calculating purchased-electricity emissions using the emission rates of the specific contracts you hold, such as renewable energy certificates, power purchase agreements or a supplier-specific rate. A retired certificate only supports a zero-emission claim if the underlying generation is genuinely zero-combustion and all eight of the GHG Protocol's Scope 2 Quality Criteria are met, including unique claim and retirement, a vintage in or close to the reporting year, and sourcing from the same market as your consumption. Where you hold no qualifying instrument you fall back to location-based factors, which makes your market-based total identical to your location-based total. No residual mix has been identified for Singapore; where one is unavailable you must say so explicitly rather than record it as zero.

The test for whether a piece of information is important enough to report. The two main frameworks define it differently, which is the single most common source of confusion. Under the ISSB standards information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence investor decisions. Under GRI it concerns an organisation's most significant impacts on the economy, environment and people, including impacts on their human rights.

The unit within the Prime Minister's Office that coordinates Singapore's whole-of-government climate change strategy, including the carbon tax policy narrative, the Nationally Determined Contribution and international carbon market cooperation. Its pages are the most reliable publicly readable source for headline national figures such as the Grid Emission Factor and carbon tax rates.

The emissions pledge each country submits under the Paris Agreement, updated on a regular cycle. Singapore's 2030 contribution is around 60 million tonnes of CO2e. Its Second NDC, submitted on 10 February 2025, commits to 45 to 50 million tonnes of CO2e in 2035. These are national commitments, not company obligations, but they set the direction of travel for every rule below them.

The agency that administers Singapore's carbon tax machinery, waste regulation and environmental protection. For reporters, NEA runs greenhouse gas measurement and reporting, publishes the Tier 1 default emission factors used for carbon tax, accredits external auditors under the Carbon Pricing Act, and administers the Resource Sustainability Act schemes for packaging, e-waste and food waste.

PUB's brand for high-grade reclaimed water, produced by further purifying treated used water and forming one of the four sources in Singapore's water supply, alongside local catchment, imported water and desalinated water. It matters for carbon accounting because reclaiming and purifying water uses energy, so water strategy and emissions strategy are linked. PUB publishes no per-cubic-metre emission factor for NEWater or potable water supply.

Reducing emissions as far as possible and balancing the small unavoidable remainder with permanent removals, so that the net effect on the atmosphere is nil. Singapore has committed to net zero by 2050, set out in its Long-Term Low-Emissions Development Strategy published in 2020 and updated by addendum in November 2022. For companies the credible benchmark is the SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard, not a self-declared claim.

Using a carbon credit, a tradable certificate representing one tonne of CO2e reduced or removed by a project elsewhere, to compensate for emissions you have not eliminated. The critical point is that offsetting does not reduce your own gross emissions and must never be netted off your Scope 1, 2 or 3 figures. Report your gross inventory first, then disclose credits separately: GRI 102 and IFRS S2 both treat carbon credits as their own disclosure. A carbon credit is also not a renewable energy certificate: credits represent a tonne avoided or removed, certificates represent a megawatt-hour of generation attributes used in market-based Scope 2.

The system-wide emissions intensity of Singapore's electricity grid, and the basis of the headline Grid Emission Factor used for location-based Scope 2 reporting. The Energy Market Authority's historical series on data.gov.sg gives 0.4085 kg CO2 per kWh for 2019 and 0.4080 for 2020, but that dataset stops at 2020 and must be treated as history only. For current reporting use the latest published GEF, which is 0.402 for 2024.

A consolidation approach under which you count 100 percent of emissions from operations where you have full authority to introduce and implement operating policies, and nothing from operations where you do not. It is the most widely used approach because it lines up with who can actually change behaviour at a site. Contrast it with financial control, which follows whose accounts the operation consolidates into, and with equity share, which allocates emissions by ownership percentage regardless of who runs the site.

The decision about which entities in a group count as yours for emissions reporting, made by choosing an approach such as equity share, financial control or operational control. The GHG Protocol requires the economic substance of a relationship to override its legal form, mirroring international financial reporting practice. Apply one approach consistently, and state which one you used, or your numbers cannot be compared with anyone else's.

A long-term contract to buy electricity, often directly from a specific generator such as a solar farm. In market-based Scope 2 accounting a power purchase agreement sits in the GHG Protocol's data hierarchy just below energy attribute certificates, provided it conveys the generator's emission rate attributes. Note that the hierarchy is presented as examples of instrument types, not as a rigid decision tree, and no instrument type is automatically guaranteed to meet the Quality Criteria.

The agency responsible for the whole water loop: collection, purification, supply, drainage and used water treatment. It matters for carbon reporting because water treatment is energy-intensive. PUB publishes an energy requirement for seawater desalination of 3.5 kWh per cubic metre today with a target of 2.0, and states that this reduction is equivalent to 0.6 kg of CO2 per cubic metre of water treated.

The SGX Mainboard guidance that turns Rule 711B into a concrete timetable. It requires emissions to be measured in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004), recognises the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, the GRI Standards, the SASB Standards and the Integrated Reporting Framework, and phases obligations by market capitalisation. It also grants first-year reliefs covering Scope 3, continued use of a previously used measurement method, and comparative information. It is versioned and amended often, so always check the current version rather than a saved copy.

A certificate representing the environmental attributes of one megawatt-hour of renewable generation, which can be sold separately from the electricity itself. Retiring a certificate is how a company makes a market-based Scope 2 claim. It only supports a zero-emission claim if the underlying generation is zero-combustion and all eight Scope 2 Quality Criteria are met, so a certificate backed by waste-to-energy or biomass is not zero. Across Asia most certificates are I-RECs, issued under the international tracking standard maintained by the I-TRACK Foundation. Singapore has a published code of practice for certificates, SS 673.

A listed vehicle holding income-producing property. Relevant here because REITs are caught by SGX listing-rule sustainability reporting, and their emissions are dominated by the buildings they own.

The higher assurance level, comparable to a financial statement audit. The practitioner does substantially more work and expresses a positive opinion that the information is fairly stated. It costs more and takes longer than limited assurance. ISSA 5000 covers both levels; Singapore's mandatory requirement is currently pitched at limited assurance only.

A facility emitting at least 2,000 tonnes of CO2e a year. It must register with NEA and submit an annual Emissions Report, but pays no carbon tax and needs no Monitoring Plan or third-party verification. This lower tier is widely overlooked: thousands of mid-sized Singapore facilities sit above 2,000 tonnes but below the 25,000 tonne tax threshold and still have a reporting duty. Both tiers must appoint a GHG Manager and a Designated Representative.

The law underpinning Singapore's circular economy obligations, administered by NEA under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. It covers three waste streams with staggered commencement: packaging reporting from 2020, extended producer responsibility for e-waste from 2021, and food waste segregation from 2024. If your company sells packaged goods, electronics or runs large food premises, this is more likely to affect you day to day than any climate disclosure rule.

Singapore's national accreditation body, which accredits the organisations that verify other organisations' claims. Its Validation and Verification Body scheme launched on 24 August 2018, initially to support aviation's CORSIA scheme, and now also covers organisation-level verification under ISO 14064-1 and product carbon footprint verification under ISO 14067. A validation and verification body is accredited against published criteria including ISO/IEC 17029, ISO 14065, ISO 14066 and ISO 14064-3. Do not confuse a SAC-accredited body with an NEA-accredited external auditor under the Carbon Pricing Act; they are separate approval routes for different purposes.

A set of industry-specific disclosure standards covering 77 industries, now maintained by the IFRS Foundation following its consolidation with the Value Reporting Foundation on 1 August 2022. IFRS S2 paragraph 32 requires you to refer to and consider the industry-based metrics in its Industry-based Guidance, which is derived largely unchanged from the climate-relevant portions of SASB and spans 68 industry volumes. The standards are free but the online navigator requires an account.

A MAS grant funding the external review and rating costs of a qualifying sustainable bond issuance.

The body that independently validates corporate emissions reduction targets against what climate science says is needed. Its Corporate Net-Zero Standard Version 2.0 was published on 11 June 2026. The operative dates for companies: the validation portal is expected to open for Version 2.0 submissions in the first quarter of 2027, and Version 2.0 becomes mandatory for all target submissions after 31 January 2028.

A registry of emission factors hosted by the Singapore Business Federation's Net Zero Hub, intended to give local companies Singapore-relevant factors rather than forcing them to borrow overseas ones. Downloads require free registration. Its own site notice records an expansion of 94 new emission factors in January 2026. Other figures circulating about its launch date, total factor count and coverage of Scope 1, 2 and 3 could not be verified and should not be relied on.

Singapore's own accounting standards. The sustainability equivalents, SFRS S1 and SFRS S2, are built directly on the ISSB standards, so preparing to one substantially prepares you for the other.

Singapore's own versions of the ISSB standards. Exposure drafts were released for consultation on 27 July 2026, closing 25 October 2026, by ACRA's Interim Sustainability Standards Committee in collaboration with SGX RegCo. The proposal that matters most: draft SFRS S2, the climate standard, would be the only mandatory one, while draft SFRS S1 would be voluntary, reflecting Singapore's climate-first approach. No effective date has been set pending legislation.

Singapore's securities exchange. Its regulatory arm, SGX RegCo, sets the listing rules that require listed issuers to publish sustainability reports and, on a phased basis, climate-related disclosures aligned to the ISSB standards.

The independent regulatory arm of Singapore Exchange, responsible for listing rules and issuer discipline. Sustainability reporting obligations for listed companies flow from its Listing Rules 711A and 711B and the accompanying Practice Note 7.6 for the Mainboard and Practice Note 7F for Catalist. It announced the extended climate reporting timelines jointly with ACRA in August 2025.

A MAS grant funding external review and advisory costs on qualifying sustainable loans, subject to a cap that depends on the borrower meeting internationally recognised disclosure standards.

Testing your strategy against several plausible futures, such as a world that warms substantially versus one that limits warming, to see where your business would be exposed. IFRS S2 requires climate-related scenario analysis to assess resilience. It is not a forecast and not a prediction; its value is in surfacing risks that a single central case would hide, such as assets that only make money if carbon stays cheap.

Emissions from sources a company owns or controls: fuel burned in its own boilers, furnaces and vehicles, plus process emissions and refrigerant leaks. Under SGX rules every listed issuer in Singapore has had to report Scope 1 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. It is normally the easiest scope to measure because the fuel invoices are your own.

Emissions produced elsewhere when generating the electricity, steam, heating or cooling that your company buys and consumes. For most Singapore office-based businesses this is the single largest number they can calculate easily, because it is simply electricity consumption multiplied by a grid emission factor. The GHG Protocol requires you to report Scope 2 two ways, location-based and market-based, not one or the other.

The fifteen categories of emissions that happen in your value chain but outside your own operations: purchased goods and services, business travel, employee commuting, use of sold products, investments and more. It is optional under the 2004 GHG Protocol Corporate Standard but is usually the largest part of a company's footprint. In Singapore it is mandatory only for Straits Times Index constituents (measured as at 30 June 2025), from financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, and voluntary for everyone else.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore's classification system for green and transitioning activities, launched on 3 December 2023 at COP28 and described as the world's first multi-sector transition taxonomy. It uses a traffic-light approach of green, amber and red rather than a simple green or not-green split, which is the point: it gives financiers a defined way to fund activities that are not yet clean but are credibly getting cleaner. It covers eight focus sectors: energy, real estate, transportation, agriculture and forestry or land use, industrial, information and communication technology, waste and circular economy, and carbon capture and sequestration.

The Financial Stability Board body whose four-pillar structure, governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, became the template for almost all climate reporting. The Financial Stability Board announced in July 2023 that its work was complete and the task force disbanded in October 2023, with the IFRS Foundation taking over monitoring from 2024. Its recommendations are fully incorporated into IFRS S1 and S2, so applying both meets the TCFD recommendations, though IFRS S2 goes further in places.

One trillion (10^12) joules of energy. Singapore's energy-efficiency obligations use terajoules as the reporting threshold unit, and NEA's Tier 1 emission factors are expressed per gigajoule (1 TJ = 1,000 GJ).

A market-led initiative that produced a disclosure framework for nature and biodiversity risks, built around an assessment approach known as LEAP. It is the nature counterpart to the TCFD's climate work. The ISSB has drawn on TNFD material for its own nature-related project, which in 2026 moved towards an IFRS Practice Statement supplementing IFRS S1 and S2 rather than a full standard.

A facility emitting at least 25,000 tonnes of CO2e a year, which must pay carbon tax, submit a Monitoring Plan to NEA for approval and obtain third-party verification of its annual Emissions Report. Do not confuse it with a reportable facility, which has a much lower threshold and far lighter obligations.

A company's stated plan for how it will respond to the shift to a lower-carbon economy: targets, actions, investment and governance. It is not a separate report but disclosure required within IFRS S2, and the IFRS Foundation published supporting guidance on 23 June 2025 that explains how to disclose one without adding new requirements. In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued Guidelines on Environmental Risk Management - Transition Planning on 5 March 2026 for banks, insurers and asset managers, effective from September 2027.

Everything upstream and downstream of your own operations: the suppliers who make what you buy, the logistics that move it, and the customers who use and dispose of what you sell. Scope 3 is simply your value chain expressed as emissions. The GHG Protocol splits it into fifteen categories, eight upstream and seven downstream, with the general rule that you count each partner's Scope 1 and 2, except for purchased goods and capital goods where you count all cradle-to-gate emissions.

Burning municipal waste to generate electricity, which is how Singapore treats most of its non-recycled waste, with the residual ash going to Semakau Landfill. NEA publishes no default carbon dioxide emission factor for municipal waste because the factor depends on waste composition and fossil carbon fraction, so operators must derive a site-specific one. Only fossil-origin carbon dioxide is reckonable for carbon tax; biogenic carbon dioxide from paper, food and wood is calculated and reported as a separate line item. NEA does publish methane and nitrous oxide defaults of 0.2 g CH4 and 47 g N2O per tonne of municipal waste.