DECARBONISATION has taken a back seat among corporate leaders in Singapore, a quarterly survey by EY has found.
The survey, which polled 1,200 executives across the globe, found that 58 per cent of chief executive officers in Singapore have deprioritised their focus on sustainability, compared to a year ago.
This is much higher than the 23 per cent of global CEOs who have made the same shift.
Asked why, more than 40 per cent of Singapore CEOs cited challenging economic or financial circumstances; 15 per cent said that sustainability was less of a priority now because of a shift in focus to other boardroom priorities.
Only 23 per cent of Singapore CEOs said sustainability was now a higher priority than a year ago – much lower than the global percentage of 54 per cent.
Vikram Chakravarty, Asean strategy and transactions leader, said that sustainability has obviously slipped as a business priority among CEOs, but added: “However, with governments continuing to focus on sustainability by, for example, requiring Singapore businesses to make climate-related disclosures in their sustainability reports, business leaders should not lose sight of their decarbonisation and sustainability strategies. ”
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The survey results, released on Thursday (May 30), showed that 71 per cent of corporate leaders in Singapore are now “green-hushing” – deliberately keeping quiet about their sustainability goals – to avoid being accused of greenwashing.
A majority of Singapore respondents (70 per cent) said they believed shareholders to be more focused on companies’ earnings targets than long-term sustainability performance; nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) said technology and artificial intelligence would resolve key sustainability challenges plaguing the world today.
Across the globe, executives responded similarly to these issues.
Turning to investors, the EY survey found them to be pulling back from environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. More than a third of institutional investors (35 per cent) said sustainability was now a lower priority in their investment portfolios than it was a year ago.
A majority of them (73 per cent) felt that consumer behaviour was still not aligned with sustainability goals, and that more needed to be done by businesses, governments and non-profit groups to effect change.
About two-thirds (67 per cent) expressed fear that their portfolio was exposed to risks from investee companies with stranded assets, or partial impairments necessitated by the cost of complying with new ESG regulations.
Investors were broadly positive about the need for governments to focus on supporting infrastructure investment. More than three-quarters (77 per cent) agreed that government investment in infrastructure was vital for economic growth in their main markets; 80 per cent agreed that governments should prioritise infrastructure investments in projects that boost growth in local economies.
While 69 per cent of investors agreed that public-private partnerships (PPPs) are the optimal funding model for infrastructure projects, there was an issue with the current models; 64 per cent of them said governments were asking the private sector to commit to a disproportionate share of capital to such projects.
