During the event, a series of initiatives to help Singapore cut its carbon footprint was announced. Other than the biomethane import pilot, other projects include a S$143 million funding initiative to advance industrial decarbonisation.
Singapore aims to have its planet-warming emissions come down to net-zero by 2050.
Meeting this target will involve getting the more emissions-intensive sectors – including the power and industrial sectors – to reduce their carbon footprint. The new initiatives could help lower emissions from these sectors.
“Our industries account for around 65% of our emissions, including emissions from the electricity that they use,” said Gan. “We cannot achieve net-zero by 2050 without reducing these emissions significantly.”
He added that Singapore must also keep these industries competitive while decarbonising them.
To this end, investments in lower-carbon technologies would involve researchers working closely with industry to develop solutions that meet its needs, prove that these can be scaled, and enable companies to deploy them.
On the power front, the generation companies will import biomethane for up to 300MW capacity from regional and international sources under the pilot.
This can meet the needs of around 600,000 Housing Board households.
The biomethane gas, or biomethane-derived electricity, will supply data centres and industrial manufacturers in Singapore. These are usually large emitters.
EDB said the biomethane initiative, which will run for 15 years, is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
The appointment of the three firms is part of a regulatory sandbox first announced in October 2025 to test the commercial, regulatory, and operational arrangements needed for biomethane imports. A regulatory sandbox is a controlled environment where firms can test new innovations under the supervision of a regulator.
The outcomes can help to shape the framework for the wider adoption of biomethane in the future, EDB added.
Reducing emissions from industry
Singapore is also committing S$143 million to support the development and commercialisation of low-carbon technologies for industries, said Gan, who is also the Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade).
Industrial activities that produce plenty of emissions include petrochemical production, refining, and fuel combustion.
There are currently few commercial solutions that can help bring down emissions from these activities.
EDB said the new Industry Decarbonisation Funding Initiative will focus on solutions in three areas.
These are carbon capture, which refers to the removal of carbon from tailpipe emissions instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, and carbon utilisation.
The latter refers to taking the captured carbon and then using it in other processes or turning into other products, such as concrete.
The third area entails other novel and emerging decarbonisation technologies, such as solutions to store carbon and ways to reduce non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes.
Of the S$143 million, up to S$100 million will be set aside for research and development initiated by companies, including startups and technology providers.
This effort, dubbed the Decarbonisation Research for Industry, Ventures, and Enterprise, aims to spur partnerships between companies and research institutions, ensuring that studies done in these areas can have real-world outcomes.
The Government will co-fund up to 75 per cent of qualified project costs and applications opened on 23 Oct.
