Last week, three members of the AlliedOffsets team travelled to Singapore for Ecosperity Week 2026. Alongside Ecosperity, we attended the I4C conference, two events that together gave us a valuable read on where the Asia-Pacific carbon market is heading. Here's what stood out.
The depth of technical knowledge in the room was one of the week's biggest surprises. Across government institutions, universities, financial services and project developers, awareness of carbon market mechanics was high. Sentiment was broadly bullish, with one important nuance: in Asia, compliance drives behaviour. Unlike in Europe, where internal sustainability champions often push voluntary action, APAC markets tend to move when regulation requires it. That distinction will shape how the market here develops.
Singapore is serious about becoming a carbon hub
With limited domestic decarbonization options, Singapore's government knows that Article 6 credit procurement is central to meeting its NDC commitments. That urgency creates real openness, ministries were accessible and actively engaging with market participants. For companies operating in this space, Singapore is a genuinely receptive environment right now.
Nature-based solutions: supply is building
A large share of the developers we met were working on NBS projects across Indonesia, the Philippines and the Pacific, mangroves and peatlands are gaining particular momentum. Many projects are early-stage and actively looking for buyers. That points to growing activity for market participants looking to engage at an early stage.
The themes everyone was talking about
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is landing in Asia. It is creating real concern among Asian industrials worried about competitiveness in European markets. Awareness is high and the appetite for guidance is growing fast.
Article 6 supply remains tight, for structural reasons. The shortage came up constantly, and the causes go deeper than process delays. As one speaker framed it, Letter of Authorization bottlenecks are partly the product of intra-governmental tension, environment ministries focused on hitting national targets are reluctant to release credits to the market, while finance ministries see a major foreign investment opportunity. Until that tension resolves, supply will stay constrained.
What Ecosperity 2026 made clear is that the APAC carbon market is moving from conversation to action. The structural questions around supply and compliance are real but so is the momentum.