Coal news and updates

MAS Highlights Market-Based Approaches as Key to Coal Transition in Asia

• Market-based approaches can drive effective coal transition by leveraging ambition, financial tools, and coordination across actors.
• Asia’s coal dependency poses unique challenges, requiring tailored solutions that prioritize energy security and social impact.
• Collaboration across governments, financial institutions, and development banks is crucial for creating scalable and just coal transition strategies.

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the World Bank are leading efforts to accelerate the coal transition through market-based approaches. Speaking at the New York Climate Week MAS-World Bank event, Gillian Tan, Assistant Managing Director and Chief Sustainability Officer at MAS, highlighted the critical need to scale up these efforts, particularly in Asia where coal remains a dominant energy source.

Uneven Transition

Despite progress in renewable energy adoption globally, the transition is taking place unevenly:

• Advanced economies are shifting away from coal, with renewables accounting for 34% of power generation last year, while coal fell to 17%.
• In Southeast Asia, coal still constitutes over 40% of the energy mix, with renewables only contributing 25%.

“One in every seven tonnes of greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere comes from a coal plant in Asia. If we are serious about the climate transition, we need to get serious about Asian coal.” – Gillian Tan