Singapore partners with Kenya and UK for carbon market

The coalition will expand in the following months.

Singapore has formed a coalition with the governments of Kenya and the UK, a first government-led initiative to strengthen voluntary demand for carbon credits.

According to the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS), the coalition is co-chaired by Ali Mohamed, Kenya Special Climate Envoy; Ravi Menon, Singapore Ambassador for Climate Action; and Rachel Kyte, UK Special Representative for Climate.

At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), the group is set to present its shared principles on the voluntary use of high-integrity carbon credits by businesses to provide consistency in approach across jurisdictions. These also aim to fuel demand for high-integrity carbon credits, increasing the flow of climate finance to Emerging Markets and Developing Economies.

The initiative aims to close the $1.67t (US$1.3t) climate finance gap without adding to the debt burden.

France and Panama have joined the coalition as its founding members, expanding over the coming months “to include countries which are sources of demand for carbon credits as well as countries which are sources of supply of credits.”

“The Coalition will build on the progress made on Article 6 at COP29, and high-integrity supply frameworks such as the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)’s Core Carbon Principles, starting to shape the market,” NCCS said.

“There is a clear role for Governments now to align, through the Coalition, to support a level playing field and the high-integrity scaling of voluntary market use,” it added.