Sustainability at the Core
Accelerating Momentum
We are in a critical decade. We must work together to solve the climate challenge, reverse nature loss and build a more inclusive society.
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The United Nations’ COP26 conference held last year set the foundation for stronger climate action. Nearly 200 countries signed the Glasgow Climate Pact, aiming to turn the 2020s into a decade of climate action and support. Decisions were taken on fossil fuels, carbon markets and financial support from developed to developing countries to support climate change reduction and adaptation measures.
The unprecedented presence of the business and financial community in Glasgow showed that the commitment to collaborate on a path to a net zero world has never been stronger. We participated in discussions covering topics such as sector transitions and carbon markets. We took the opportunity to introduce Climate Impact X (CIX), a global exchange and marketplace for high quality carbon credits, which we established together with DBS, the Singapore Exchange, and Standard Chartered.
At Temasek, doing well, doing right, and doing good are inseparable. We strive to activate capital – financial, human, social, and natural – to catalyse solutions for a more sustainable and inclusive world, so every generation prospers.
We set and achieved our target of carbon neutrality as a company three years ago, and have maintained this status. We target to reduce the net carbon emissions attributable to our portfolio to half the 2010 levels by 2030, as we aim for net zero emissions at the overall portfolio level by 2050.
We strive to activate capital – financial, human, social and natural – to catalyse solutions for a more sustainable and inclusive world.
To inform our investment decisions, we set an initial internal carbon price of US$42 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021, lifting it to US$50 in 2022, with the intention of increasing it progressively to US$100 by the end of this decade.
Our Board, supported by our senior management team, sets out the direction and oversees our progress on sustainability-related issues. The Board has formed a Risk & Sustainability Committee to assist it in its oversight of our sustainability strategy, governance, policies, goals and targets, disclosures and stakeholder management. It also provides guidance on key topical sustainability-related matters, including climate change.
With growing awareness of nature’s role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, we have sought to better understand the dependencies and impact of our portfolio on nature, and have supported the development of nature-based solutions.
Over the year, we accelerated our efforts to invest in climate-aligned opportunities, to enable carbon negative solutions and to encourage decarbonisation efforts in businesses.
We support research and selectively invest in early stage companies that offer disruptive ideas and business models in areas that can make a real impact such as food, energy, water, transportation, waste, materials and urban living. For example, we invested in Apeel, a US-based agri-tech innovator which produces edible coatings that extend the shelf life of perishable produce, and Singapore-based alternative protein start-up Next Gen Foods.
We work to catalyse change and innovation by funding pilots, feasibility studies and research programmes in emerging areas of sustainability, such as distributed district cooling for brownfield buildings, hydrogen, blue carbon ecosystems, and nature-based solutions. We help to gather data and develop insights necessary to generate novel solutions with potential to scale and commercialise.
Beyond climate challenges, Temasek and its portfolio companies have deployed capital towards innovative businesses that make a meaningful impact to uplift underserved communities. For example, Fullerton Financial Holdings partnered Bank of China in 2011 to establish a community bank model that offers financing for customers who lack access to mainstream financing in China. As at the end of 2021, over 1 million loans have been provided to self-employed and rural customers through about 130 village banks and 190 sub-branches.
Temasek and its portfolio companies have deployed capital towards innovative businesses that make a meaningful impact to uplift underserved communities.
Zipline, our investee company, uses autonomous drones to deliver essential medical supplies to remote healthcare facilities across East and West Africa, Japan and the US. It has delivered about 5 million doses of traditional vaccines and about 850,000 doses of mRNA vaccines, as part of a partnership with Pfizer and BioNTech, to health facilities in Ghana. In 2021, we invested in Halodoc, a healthcare technology platform that provides accessible and affordable health services, such as tele-consultation and online retail pharmaceutical offerings in Indonesia.
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