Singapore needs roughly 2.5 million tonnes of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes a year to offset the share of its carbon tax that companies may cover with credits. Stage two of its procurement, opened on 7 September, seeks at least 12 million tonnes from pre-qualified bidders in countries with which it has an Implementation Agreement. Nature-based and technology projects are both accepted. The bidder briefing was scheduled for 23 September, during Climate Week.
Who can supply. Singapore has signed twelve Implementation Agreements, four of them in ASEAN: Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and, on 4 September, Laos. That makes the region's registry pipeline the natural supply base. Our database shows 222 pre-issuance projects across those four countries plus their neighbours, 70 of them forestry and land use.
What none of them have. An ITMO is a credit plus a host-country authorisation with a corresponding adjustment. This week the Democratic Republic of Congo expanded a programme-level authorisation to 2.75 million tonnes for a Gold Standard clean-energy programme, and Paraguay and Taiwan negotiated a 5 million tonne floor. No Southeast Asian forestry project on Verra or Gold Standard carries an authorisation label today. The Philippines' DENR adopted its 2026–2030 Voluntary Forest Carbon Roadmap in February 2026 (DAO 2026-02), which builds the domestic registry an authorisation would depend on, but the instrument itself does not yet exist.
What this means for a pre-issuance project. Methodology is no longer the scarce input. A VM0047 ARR project on VCS v5 is CCP-eligible by design. The scarce input is the letter from the host government, and the workplan to get it runs through national registries, NDC accounting and ministries that have never issued one. A project that starts that conversation this quarter can be deliverable inside Singapore's 2030 window. One that waits for the tender to be awarded cannot.
What we will watch. The first authorisation label on a Southeast Asian registry record. Any project whose proponent field changes to a Singapore-domiciled entity, as Krasop Blue Carbon's did this week. And the tender award itself.
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