Nine in 10 Singapore firms fall short in measuring Scope 3 emissions: report

"Knowledge deficits linked to inaction."

The vast majority or 94% of Singapore organisations fail to fully measure and analysing their Scope 3 emissions, according to a joint report by Schneider Electric and the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA). 

In a survey of 500 senior business leaders involved in sustainability strategies of their organisations, the report found that only 39% have a strong understanding of Scope 3 emissions. 

Only 27% of senior teams have a strong grasp of Scope 3, much lower compared to 58% of board members and 51% of C-level executives. 

Respondent said the knowledge gap was mainly due to senior executives having better access to briefings on emissions management and strategies. Despite this, business leaders agreed that there is a need to equally share information across all functions and divisions to better equip the whole company for Scope 3 reporting requirements in Singapore.

Confidence in meeting targets has also been impacted by this knowledge gap, with only 27% of business leaders saying the Scope 3 emissions target set by their companies is achievable, far from 40% for Scope 1 and 31% for Scope 2.

Meanwhile, less than a third believe their organizations’ net zero targets can be achieved. 64% of those who have not set net-zero targets yet said they should have done so.

“Singapore. Education is critical for advancing Singapore’s green agenda. We see correlations throughout the findings of this study that a lack of understanding of key areas of management of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions leads to a lower level of planning, target setting, and ultimately actio,” said Yoon Young Kim, Cluster President of Schneider Electric for Singapore and Brunei.

The report’s findings came ahead of the mandatory climate-related disclosure reporting for all listed companies and large non-listed companies in the city-state starting 2025 and 2027, respectively.

In a separate study by Smartkarma, Singapore's major banks, DBS, OCBC, and UOB have set their green goals for a 96% emissions cut by 2050.