Singapore advances carbon market innovation and financing through Blue Catalyst challenge and new Carbon Project Development Grant awards

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) today announced two new recipients of the Carbon Project Development Grant¹, which supports Singapore-based carbon project developers undertaking early-stage feasibility studies for high-quality Article 6 carbon credit projects.

In addition, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Hatch Blue held the inaugural Blue Catalyst² open innovation challenge, supported by EDB, to showcase technologies aimed at scaling high-quality blue carbon ecosystems across Asia and beyond.

These latest developments strengthen Singapore’s continued efforts to build capabilities across the carbon markets value chain — spanning technology innovation and carbon project development — to nurture a vibrant carbon services and trading hub in Asia.

Blue Catalyst shortlists technologies for blue carbon projects

The Blue Catalyst open innovation challenge was first announced in September 2025 to advance innovation in blue carbon measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) and project development, by bringing together global startups to solve real-world implementation challenges.

The challenge attracted strong global interest, with over 130 applications from startups and technology providers from 37 countries. Ten finalist companies were then selected to participate in a two-week accelerator programme hosted in Singapore, where they learnt from practitioners across conservation, finance, and technology, and tested assumptions against field-based project development in Southeast Asia. The finalists developed solutions across areas such as geospatial mapping, carbon stock and flux modelling and biodiversity monitoring. 

WWF will assess the potential to pilot the solutions by the finalists as part of the Blue Carbon Support Programme (BCSP) and Canopy³. The BCSP supports the co-development and deployment of technology solutions that address technical and operational challenges in blue carbon projects. Canopy unlocks finance for 12,000 hectares of nature restoration while strengthening the capacity of carbon project developers to carry out the restoration. These initiatives aim to scale high-integrity blue carbon projects across the region.

At today’s Blue Catalyst Demo Day, six companies were further selected from the 10 finalists based on their solutions’ technological potential, business traction and feasibility to scale. These companies presented their solutions to blue carbon investors, project developers and other partners, providing them opportunities to secure potential capital, partnerships and market access needed to scale their solutions.

Two new recipients under the Carbon Project Development Grant

EDB awarded its Carbon Project Development Grant to global climate solutions provider Anew Climate and global carbon project developer Value Network Ventures (“VNV”). This brings the total number of recipients of the grant – launched in November 2024 – to five⁴, reflecting growing interest in developing high-integrity carbon projects from Singapore to serve the needs of countries and companies in the region. Please refer to Annex B for more information on the new recipients.

With support from the grant, the recipients will conduct feasibility studies for Article 6-aligned projects in countries that have established carbon credit Implementation Agreements (IAs) or a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore. To date, Singapore has signed IAs with 11 partner countries, and MOUs with multiple countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania.

Home to more than 160 carbon services and trading firms across the value chain, Singapore is driving the development of high-integrity carbon markets to support regional decarbonisation and our national climate ambitions. As demand grows for high-quality carbon credits, Singapore aims to serve as a trusted location where companies can develop, finance and scale credible carbon market solutions for Asia and the world.

¹ EDB. (2024, Nov 12.) Carbon project development grant to support leading companies in generating high-quality Article 6 carbon credits. [Press release].

² WWF and Hatch Blue. (2025, Sep 24.) WWF and Hatch Blue announce Open Innovation Challenge to Advance Technologies for High-Integrity Blue Carbon Solutions, supported by EDB. [Press release].

³ WWF. (2026, Feb 3.) WWF-Singapore launches Canopy, a nature finance facility backing 12,000 hectares of high-quality restoration across Southeast Asia. [Press release].

⁴ The first cohort of recipients announced in May 2025 were 3Degrees, Climate Bridge International and The Nature Conservancy.