Singapore — Asia Pacific has reached a critical climate inflection point, according to a new joint report by KPMG and Google, which finds that while momentum behind green technologies is accelerating, the region’s GreenTech ecosystem is not scaling fast enough to keep pace with rising climate, economic, and social pressures.
The report, Potential to progress: Scaling Asia Pacific’s GreenTech ecosystems, highlights that policy ambition, corporate demand and investor interest in GreenTech are growing, but structural barriers continue to prevent solutions from moving beyond pilot stages to commercial scale.
Asia Pacific is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, with communities significantly more exposed to extreme weather events.
At the same time, the region continues to attract large-scale capital for the energy transition, receiving over 45 percent of global energy transition investment in 2023, equivalent to around US$940 billion. The report finds that this investment is yet to translate into broad commercial deployment across critical sectors such as agriculture, water, waste, and climate resilience.
What’s driving GreenTech momentum across Asia Pacific
The report identifies four major forces accelerating GreenTech adoption across Asia Pacific.
National sustainability targets are providing long-term direction, with governments embedding climate goals into national strategies and green plans, such as Singapore’s Green Plan 2030, Japan’s Green Growth Strategy, and India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change.
Industrial policy and incentives are playing an increasingly important role in accelerating innovation. Sustainability-focused industrial policies, supported by R&D funding and tax incentives, are helping de-risk early-stage technologies and support scale-up in areas such as renewable energy, electric mobility, and low-carbon manufacturing.
Integration of ESG considerations is reshaping corporate priorities. Heightened regulatory, investor, and stakeholder expectations are making ESG considerations central to business strategy, increasing demand for GreenTech solutions that support emissions management, transparency, and regulatory compliance.
Mobilisation of green finance is expanding access to capital. The growth of green, blended, and patient finance instruments is helping to manage the risks associated with capital-intensive GreenTech initiatives and longer payback periods.
“Asia Pacific faces escalating climate risks driven by rapid urbanisation and continued reliance on fossil fuels, making the transition to sustainable technologies more urgent than ever,” said Sharad Somani, Head of Infrastructure, KPMG Asia Pacific. “Global environmental expectations, such as the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, further underscore the need for green innovation, and there is clearly a heightened need for collaborative thinking and action to enable more rapid progress to be realised.”
Scaling remains the missing link
While capital commitments remain substantial, the report finds that progress on scaling GreenTech solutions remains uneven across the region.
Between 2020 and 2024, global climate technology funding declined by nearly 40 percent, with Asia Pacific experiencing a 44 percent drop. At the same time, the region continued to attract more than 45 percent of global energy transition investment in 2023 – around US$940 billion – highlighting a disconnect between investment volumes and widespread commercial deployment.
The report identifies several structural barriers that continue to stall scale up, including:
- Concentrated funding, with nearly 50 percent of mitigation finance flowing into clean energy while sectors such as agriculture, water and waste receive less than 10 percent.
- Fragmented ecosystems and limited cross border collaboration, affecting capital flows, talent mobility and innovation diffusion.
- High financing costs and long commercialisation cycles, with GreenTech startups taking over seven years on an average to scale from Series A to D, compared with only three years for digital startups.
- Policy and regulatory inconsistency, creating uncertainty for investors and innovators.
- Talent and skills gaps, with one in five green jobs in Asia Pacific expected to go unfilled by 2030, particularly roles that combine technical and business expertise.
China stands apart, but the region remains fragmented
China stands out as a notable exception, having developed a more integrated, policy-driven GreenTech ecosystem supported by strong industry–academia collaboration and large-scale deployment. However, many other markets across Asia Pacific continue to struggle to move innovations from pilot to scale.
From pilots to progress: a roadmap for coordinated action
To accelerate progress, the report calls for coordinated action across governments, industry leaders, investors and startups. Key priorities include:
- Providing long-term policy stability by creating predictable regulatory environments that give innovators and investors confidence to commit capital
- Expanding blended and patient finance models by leveraging public and philanthropic capital to de-risk mid-stage innovation and crowd in private investment
- Strengthening GreenTech ecosystems by fostering deeper industry–academia collaboration, cross-border platforms, and coordinated innovation hubs like the ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub
- Building talent and innovation pipelines by integrating business, sustainability, and technology skills across education and workforce programs
“Central to this effort is the KPMG ASEAN Decarbonisation Hub, launched in Singapore, which serves as a catalyst for low-carbon and energy-efficient projects across the region. The Hub adopts a hub-and-spoke model with Centres of Excellence focused on areas such as hydrogen solutions, solar and wind energy, carbon capture, and sustainable cities,” said Sharad Somani, Head of Infrastructure, KPMG Asia Pacific.
“The opportunity before us is clear: translate potential into progress through collaboration, innovation, and purpose-driven technology – creating a greener, smarter, and more inclusive future for the region and beyond. This is all the more critical as we work to realise the potential of AI while addressing new energy demands,” said Spencer Low, Head of Regional Sustainability, Asia Pacific, Google.
The report concludes that unlocking Asia Pacific’s decarbonisation potential – projected to reach US$10 trillion by 2050 – will require a shift toward market-ready and bankable GreenTech solutions. By aligning national climate plans with corporate ESG transparency and innovative financing approaches, the region can begin to turn climate vulnerability into a foundation for sustainable growth and long-term competitiveness.
About KPMG International
KPMG is a global organisation of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”) operate and provide professional services.
“KPMG” is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organisation or to one or more member firms collectively. KPMG firms operate in 142 countries and territories with more than 275,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities.
KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients. For more details about KPMG’s structure, please visit kpmg.com/governance.
Media contact
Name: Radhika Dhawan
Email: radhikadhawan@kpmg.com.sg
Phone: +65 97548874
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