KPMG’s ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub in Singapore Looks To Accelerate Energy Transition and Climate Funding Across the Region’s Governments and Businesses
At the opening of its new office at Asia Square Tower 2, KPMG in Singapore introduced its three-pronged Sustainable Future of Work strategy aimed at scaling and transforming businesses in Singapore and the region to create lasting, measurable change on a fragile planet. The professional services firm will work in concert with enterprises and industry players to accelerate, co-create and operationalise their fit-for-future transformation in three areas of focus: decarbonisation in ASEAN’s green and just energy transition, data and insights-led solutioning as an enabler, and talent as a differentiator in the future economy.
As a key implementation to this strategy, KPMG in Singapore introduced its first-of-its-kind ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub today. Adopting a ‘hub-and-spoke’ approach, the Hub will have Centres of Excellence (CoEs) i.e. the ‘spokes’ to drive specific focus areas across the ASEAN countries which includes decarbonisation and hydrogen solutions, solar and wind technologies, geothermal technologies, sustainable cities, carbon capture and energy efficiency. Aside from providing expertise in these areas, the CoEs will also support governments and enterprises to create financing models and attract financing, thereby augmenting the resources and expertise that may be needed to make decarbonisation efforts possible regionally. Such nodes of sustainability capabilities will be a gamechanger and equaliser for various nations across ASEAN looking to decarbonise their value chains and economies.
KPMG estimates that the decarbonisation opportunity in ASEAN is expected to reach between US$7.5 trillion to US$10 trillion by 2050, with about half of the investments channelled towards renewable energy and strengthening power infrastructure across ASEAN. As ASEAN countries chart their roadmap for net-zero, KPMG’s ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub amalgamates the firm’s regional leadership in zero-carbon energy, blended finance, low-carbon investment opportunities, climate risks and energy efficiency to catalyse the region towards a low-carbon future. Some of the key opportunities identified in ASEAN’s energy transition include efforts by countries to phase out coal and transition to green energy as the mainstream. There has also been a clearer urgency to ramp up hydrogen solutions and build clean mobility infrastructure. However, ASEAN countries remain at varying stages of their decarbonisation trajectories due to their unique energy and socio-political needs.
Ong Pang Thye, Managing Partner, KPMG in Singapore, said: “Singapore and its ASEAN neighbours are on the cusp of growth and green opportunity, with decarbonisation expected to emerge as among the top contributors to Singapore’s gross domestic product by 2050. Over 50,000 new jobs in energy transition are also expected to be created in Singapore over the next decade and over 5.5 million in ASEAN. KPMG’s investments towards a Sustainable Future of Work, amplified by its new ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub, are aimed at advancing enduring progress and prosperity across the region and in Singapore – specifically by addressing the resource and expertise challenges of countries and businesses. Data-driven insights for the green transition and global tax are also opportunities that are calling for support. We have doubled our technology investments into the future of work and are ready to provide quality insights and advice to take companies forward in their purpose-driven agendas, helping them break down silos, co-create assets and unify data in these areas.”
Complementing the Hub’s propositions are KPMG’s in-house developed technologies, such as its Decarbonisation Pathways tool which helps businesses model future scenarios to achieve their decarbonisation ambitions across their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, while incorporating costs and approximate investments into the scenarios. The tool is built at the asset level to ensure that future planning decisions can be made around the infrastructure assets that generate these emissions. Other tools include a sectoral benchmarking and diagnostic tool, reporting and monitoring framework and dashboards, and a decarbonisation toolkit by industry.
ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub: Fuelling ASEAN’s green and just energy transition
Over 50,000 new and upgraded jobs in sustainability and energy transition are expected to be created in Singapore alone over the next decade and over 5.5 million in ASEAN, according to independent research and official estimates[1]. Along with roles in climate technology such as hydrogen production and supply, and embodied carbon reporting and assurance, there will also be new opportunities in sustainable finance, digital technology, built environment and waste management.
Hence, the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub, which will house a dedicated team of decarbonisation professionals in Singapore and the region, will drive and prioritise sector growth that is in support of the country’s push to strengthen its Singaporean core. It will also engage ASEAN’s start-up communities to leverage homegrown talent in these emerging areas as well as proactively publish thought leadership and case studies to promote best practices.
In its founding years, the Hub’s priority areas will include low-carbon, energy efficient projects as well as carbon trading and market mechanisms. It will also boost the delivery of innovative and practical green solutions in the energy, transport and real estate sectors, given their importance in the achievement of net-zero ambitions across ASEAN nations. Digital technologies will be at the heart of the Hub’s delivery engine to enable data-driven insights, smart visualisation and effective control for a green and just transition. Working closely with KPMG’s Global Decarbonisation Hub, the ASEAN Hub will also see top talent drawn from all parts of the world with the capabilities to synthesise these cutting-edge solutions to local and regional contexts.
KPMG’s Sustainable Future of Work Strategy
KPMG’s Sustainable Future of Work strategy and ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub were shared in conjunction with the opening of the firm’s new Singapore office premises at Asia Square Tower 2 – a connected, conscious and collaborative workspace that is committed to building thriving and sustainable enterprises that can survive waves of disruption. Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance & Second Minister for National Development, was the guest-of-honour at the opening event. With all-round demand for quality advisors on the rise amid an increasingly complex business landscape, KPMG’s office of the future is where top industry minds gather and bring to bear solutions that fuel innovation and growth, with strategic focus on the decarbonisation, talent and data pillars of its Sustainable Future of Work strategy. This is further supported by the firm’s cutting-edge workplace technology and co-creation spaces.
Decarbonisation: As a global organisation, KPMG recognises its role as a force for positive change in the just transition to net zero. Hence, it has also committed to firm-wide decarbonisation targets of achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2022, leveraging smart technologies to reduce its carbon footprint and promoting resource-efficient and sustainable habits at the employee level. This year, KPMG will also set an Internal Carbon Price to cover business travel and business operations globally, which will help fund improvements across its value chain by setting a price on the emissions that it generates.
Talent: About 30 percent of existing industry jobs will require upskilling as ASEAN decarbonises. Hence, a key prong in KPMG’s Sustainable Future of Work strategy is its continued investments towards growing talent who can lead the market in cross-sector trends and transformative expertise, while uplifting industry baseline standards for professional services and nurturing the local talent pool pipeline. KPMG has recently invested S$25 million into salary adjustments this financial year for majority of its Singapore workforce, with starting pays for entry-level professional staff increasing by up to 20 percent. The firm has also launched its S$30 million lifelong learning programme for its 3,200-strong workforce, focusing on developing futurist capabilities and harnessing skillsets, such as data and digital literacy as well as valuing and creating measurable impact.
As a leading professional services firm that attracts top talent who can deliver the impactful outcomes demanded by businesses today, KPMG in Singapore was also the first in the industry to raise salaries for audit and tax employees who have attained the Singapore Chartered Accountant (SCA) or Accredited Tax Advisor (ATA) qualifications by 20 percent. This is on top of the firm’s investments of about S$21,000 per employee in tuition fees, exam fees and generous paid study leave.
Data: Technology investments into the future of work have also been doubled by KPMG in Singapore to enable and empower staff to create quality outcomes and measurable change for clients and communities. KPMG’s Digital Village – the firm’s all-encompassing digitalisation strategy that houses its digital development competencies and pushes out solutions in areas such as risk, compliance, artificial intelligence integration, and data insights.
KPMG is also broadening support for businesses to create sustainable growth through data-led insights across jurisdictions. One use case is the current challenge faced by businesses over uncertainties that could be posed by global tax developments, exacerbated by data disparities and information gaps across jurisdictions and even internally across their value chains and departments. KPMG’s cloud-based Digital Gateway for Tax platform, which was showcased at KPMG’s office opening, supports businesses, especially multinational corporations, have a macro-oversight to global data. When businesses have sight of data analyses across jurisdictions, they can seamlessly analyse effective tax rates and also consider their tax planning strategies to chart sustainable tax policies, increase cost savings, while safeguarding reputation risks. This enables effective governance and control around the various tax obligations, drives consistency and analysis, and supports the seamless flow of data for companies.
Sustainable tax policies are the backbone of growing lasting economies, greening our environments and building a social compact. With ESG becomes front and centre of business decision making today, KPMG has also invested more than US$1.5 billion over three years on its ESG change agenda. The collective investments will focus on training and expanding KPMG’s global workforce, harnessing data, accelerating the development of new technologies, and driving action through partnerships, alliances and advocacy.
