Ep. 20: Unlocking Green Finance in Southeast Asia with Nikki Kemp
Southeast Asia faces a $1.1 trillion annual climate funding gap — and the world is falling short by $800 billion every year. So what's actually blocking the flow of green capital into the region?
David Austin and James Balzer sit down with Nikki Kemp, Executive Director of the Singapore Green Finance Centre at SMU, to break down the real structural barriers to sustainable finance in Southeast Asia — and what's being done to overcome them.
They cover regulatory fragmentation across ASEAN, why blended finance hasn't scaled, Singapore's FAST-P structure, the struggles of the JETP and ETM coal transition programs, a new corporate finance model being developed for Indonesia's PLN and Vietnam's EVN, the \"race to the bottom\" problem with sustainability-linked loans, the region's growing insurance and adaptation finance gap, and why the GEMS default database needs to be opened up to the private sector.
If you work in sustainable finance, climate policy, banking, or impact investing — or just want to understand how Southeast Asia is navigating the energy transition — this episode is essential listening.
Green Finance Academy — a two-day in-person program covering energy transition financing, blended finance, carbon markets, AI and green finance, and more. Taking place 28-29 October 2026. Details and registration: https://www.singaporegreenfinance.com/sgfc-course/green-finance-academy/
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