Law, Policy and Regulations
This domain covers three areas: Disclosure and Reporting, Taxes, Subsidies and Mandates, Climate Litigation. It aims to inform non-executive directors on the upcoming pressures to disclose the impacts of climate change to stakeholders and governments. It covers the direction of policies in response to the climate challenge and its enforcement in Singapore and the world. This domain curates reports and discussions about the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, a widely recommended and in some contexts enforced framework. It also contains specific and localized content such as primers and legal opinions on directors' duties, disclosure obligations and other responsibilities in Singapore and abroad, and discussions around financial and other incentives provided by the Singaporean Government to tackle climate change and the transformation needed.
Law, Policy and Regulations is the topic chosen for the second seminar of the Climate Governance Singapore to be delivered in February 2022.
*For essential reading
Disclosure and Reporting
| *World | Primer on Climate Change: Directors’ Duties and Disclosure Obligations This primer provides an overview of contemporary evidence that climate change presents foreseeable and in many cases material, financial and systemic risks that affect corporations and their investors |
CCLI, 2021 |
| *Singapore | Legal Opinion on Directors' Responsibilities and Climate Change Under Singapore Law Advice on the obligations of directors to have regard to the issues associated with climate change to discharge duties and disclosure obligations under Singapore Law. |
CCLI, 2021 |
| World | Full Disclosure: A Guide to TCFD Alignment This report provides an explanatory guide to the TCFD and its recommendations, including some practical guidance for implementing them and improving your climate-related actions and disclosures. The report is available on the TCFD website. |
TCFD, 2020 |
| World |
Bite-size Briefings: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Regulation |
Baker McKenzie, 2021 |
| Singapore | Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Measurement and Reporting Guidelines:
Part 1a: Introduction to the GHG Measurement and Reporting Requirements for the Reportable Facility |
NEA, 2021 |
| World | Climate-related Corporate Reporting: Questions for Companies The document presents views from investors and companies on TCFD core elements. It covers the main regulatory and market initiatives relevant to companies' disclosure on climate change. Additional reading: FRC (2019) Climate-related Corporate Reporting - Questions for Companies, Financial Reporting Council. |
FRC, 2019 |
| World | Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures This document presents a set of recommendations for consistent disclosures that will help financial market participants understand their climate-related risks. The recommendations of the Task Force for Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) are voluntary but are fast gaining traction within sustainability/ESG policy and regulation. More information here as well: TCFD (2017) Implementing the Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. |
TCFD, 2017 |
| World | The Use of Scenario Analysis in Disclosure of Climate-related Risks and Opportunities This technical supplement sets out and discusses: Using scenario analysis, considerations for applying scenario analysis, analytical choices involved in scenario analysis, types of climate-related scenarios, publicly available climate-related scenarios from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and others that can provide context and a basis for company, industry or sector scenarios. |
TCFD, 2017 |
| World | Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures: Guidance on Scenario Analysis for Non-Financial Companies This report aims to raise and frame the appropriate considerations to assist companies in their particular context. |
TCFD, 2020 |
| World | Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures: Guidance on Risk Management Integration and Disclosure This guidance is aimed at companies that are interested in integrating climate-related risks into their existing risk management processes and disclosing information on their risk management processes in alignment with the TCFD recommendations. |
TCFD, 2020 |
| Singapore | Sustainability Reporting and Firm Value: Evidence from Singapore-Listed Companies The authors use an established sustainability reporting assessment framework and test how both the adoption and quality of sustainability reporting are related to a firm's market value. |
NUS, 2017 |
| World | Towards TCFD Compliance: Observations on Reporting Trends This report helps premium listed companies in the UK respond to mandatory reporting requirements and investor expectations concerning TCFD recommendations and, where disclosures have already been made, assess their maturity. |
EY, 2021 |
Taxes, Subsidies and Mandates
| *Asia | Climate Change, Coming Soon to a Court Near You: National Climate Change Legal Frameworks in Asia and the Pacific This report, together with three complementary ones in here https://www.adb.org/publications/series/climate-change-coming-to-court, supports judiciaries and legal professionals by sharing knowledge and ideas. It showcases climate and environmental jurisprudence from Asia and the Pacific. |
ADB, 2020 |
| *Singapore | Sustainability Report 2020/21 These reports set out Singapore’s strategies on climate resilience and environmental sustainability to strengthen the resilience of its financial sector to environmental risks, develop a vibrant green finance ecosystem, build a climate-resilient reserves portfolio and incorporate sustainable practices in our organisations. |
MAS, 2020/21 |
| Singapore | Carbon Pricing Act 2018, Government Gazette Acts Supplement. No. 23 of 2018 This Act requires the reporting of, and the payment of a tax on greenhouse gas emissions, and to make consequential and related amendments to the Energy Conservation Act. |
Republic of Singapore, 2018 |
| Singapore | Energy Conservation Act 2012 & Energy Conservation (Amendment) 2017 Government Gazette Acts Supplement. No. 24 of 2017 This Act mandates energy efficiency requirements and energy management practices to promote energy conservation, improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, and to make consequential and related amendments to specific written laws. |
Republic of Singapore, 2017 |
| Singapore | Charting Singapore’s Low-Carbon and Climate Resilient Future This document discusses the Singaporean response to Climate Change and a low-carbon future. |
NCCS, 2020 |
| Singapore | Singapore Fourth Biennial Update Report This report summarises the progress Singapore has made as a nation to address climate change and meet its obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). |
NEA, 2020 |
| Singapore | NEA’s Licensing Controls on Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) This report informs the industry on NEA’s licensing control and TradeNet Permit declarations for the controlled HFCs. |
NEA, 2018 |
| Singapore | SGX Catalist Rulebook Chapter 7 Part III Equity Securities - Periodic Reports Legal information about the need to issue a sustainability report for its financial year and its content. |
SGX, 2016 |
Climate Litigation
| *Asia | Climate Change, Coming Soon to a Court Near You: National Climate Change Legal Frameworks in Asia and the Pacific This report, together with three complementary ones in here https://www.adb.org/publications/series/climate-change-coming-to-court, supports judiciaries and legal professionals by sharing knowledge and ideas. It showcases climate and environmental jurisprudence from Asia and the Pacific. |
ADB, 2020 |
| *World | Global Climate Litigation Report: 2020 Status Review This report provides an overview of the current state of climate change litigation around the world in 2020 (1,550 cases filed in 38 countries). |
UNEP, 2020 |
| World | Climate Litigation as a Tool to Tackle Global Warming This article discusses the limitations of (causation effect) and the benefits of climate litigation. |
UNESCAP, 2021 |
| World | Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation: 2021 Snapshot This report presents cases filed before courts in 39 countries and 13 international or regional courts or tribunals. |
LSE, CLS, CCCEP, 2021 |
| World | Filling the Evidentiary Gap in Climate Litigation This paper assesses the scientific and legal bases for establishing causation and evaluate judicial treatment of scientific evidence in 73 lawsuits. |
Nature Climate Change, 2021 |