GenZero’s Sustainability Report Shows How Climate Investment Is Becoming a Business of Scale, Measurement and Market Infrastructure

SINGAPORE, August 4, 2026 – GenZero’s second Sustainability Report offers a clear signal of how climate investing is evolving from broad sustainability ambition into a more disciplined business of measurable impact, portfolio construction, market infrastructure and commercial scale.

The Temasek-owned decarbonisation investment platform reported a 47% year-on-year increase in cumulative direct realised climate impact, with its portfolio delivering 4.4 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in cumulative direct realised climate impact on a stake-adjusted basis from calendar year 2022 to 2025. This includes 1.4 MtCO₂e delivered in 2025.

On a combined direct and indirect basis, GenZero’s portfolio delivered 8.3 MtCO₂e of realised climate impact in 2025, with further gains expected as investments scale.

The report, titled “Steadfast in Shifting Times”, documents progress across 26 closed investments in 26 countries, spanning nature-based solutions, technology-based solutions and carbon ecosystem development.

For business readers, the report is less about sustainability reporting in the conventional sense and more about the business model of climate investment: how capital is allocated, how impact is measured, how markets are built and how emerging climate solutions are moved towards commercial viability.

Climate Capital Moves Towards Measurable Outcomes

GenZero’s report comes at a time when climate investing is facing more scrutiny. Investors, corporates and policymakers are increasingly asking whether climate finance is producing measurable outcomes, or merely creating portfolios that appear aligned with net-zero narratives. GenZero’s emphasis on stake-adjusted realised climate impact is therefore important.

The firm said its cumulative direct realised climate impact from 2022 to 2025 was equivalent to the annual emissions of around one million petrol-powered cars, or around 8% of Singapore’s total annual emissions.

This kind of measurement is central to GenZero’s positioning. Rather than reporting only capital committed or sectors covered, the firm is attempting to link investment activity with quantified climate outcomes.

That may become increasingly important as climate investors face pressure to demonstrate both financial discipline and real-world impact.

A Portfolio Built Across Three Climate Themes

GenZero’s strategy is built around three broad investment focus areas: nature-based solutions, technology-based solutions and carbon ecosystem enablers. GenZero describes itself as an investment platform focused on accelerating decarbonisation globally, delivering positive climate impact alongside long-term sustainable financial returns.

The three-part structure gives the platform a diversified approach to climate investing.

Nature-based solutions support conservation, restoration, sustainable land management and biodiversity-linked impact. Technology-based solutions target decarbonisation in sectors such as sustainable fuels, low-carbon materials, carbon capture, energy transition and grid decarbonisation. Carbon ecosystem enablers focus on the infrastructure needed for carbon markets, corporate decarbonisation and climate finance to scale.

This structure allows GenZero to operate across both asset-heavy and market-enabling parts of the climate economy.

Commercial Viability Becomes the Central Test

GenZero Chief Executive Officer Frederick Teo said the need for cost-effective climate solutions is growing, driven by extreme weather events, supply chain disruptions and AI-led energy demand.

“As climate investors, there are significant opportunities to deploy capital to support solutions that deliver actual value and impact,” Teo said.

He also framed GenZero’s investment philosophy around pragmatism. “Climate action does not require dogmatic adherence to an ideological agenda,” Teo said. “Rather, we need to engage in principled pragmatism, a willingness to back commercially-viable solutions that can deliver some climate impact even if they are imperfect.”

For business leaders, this is one of the most important takeaways from the report. The next phase of climate investment will not be defined only by whether a solution is theoretically aligned with net zero. It will be judged by whether it can scale, attract customers, reduce emissions, produce measurable outcomes and survive commercial realities.

That is particularly relevant in areas such as sustainable aviation fuel, low-carbon construction materials, agricultural methane reduction, nature restoration and carbon credit markets, where high ambition must be matched by demand, pricing, standards and financing structures.

New Investments Point to Hard-to-Abate Opportunities

GenZero highlighted several milestone investments during the financial year ending 31 March 2026. One of the most notable is Terra CO2, GenZero’s inaugural investment in the built environment sector. Terra CO2 develops technology that transforms locally abundant, low-cost feedstocks into low-carbon cementitious construction materials.

For the construction sector, this is important because cement and concrete remain among the hardest industrial emissions challenges. Low-carbon materials that can be adopted within existing construction supply chains could represent a major commercial opportunity if they meet cost, performance and regulatory requirements.

GenZero also made its first investment in Brazil through The Reforestation Fund, which targets conservation, restoration and reforestation of 270,000 hectares of degraded land across Latin America.

The firm also highlighted The Good Rice Alliance, which secured a long-term offtake agreement with Amazon for over 680,000 tCO₂e of carbon credits derived from methane emission reductions in rice cultivation across India.

For the carbon markets industry, long-term offtake agreements are especially important because they provide revenue visibility and help unlock project financing. This is relevant for businesses operating in agriculture, nature, methane reduction and carbon credit origination.

Another milestone was the Imperative Spekboom Ecosystem Restoration Project, which closed a US$91 million blended finance package comprising a World Bank Outcome Bond and a streaming facility from GenZero and co-investors.

This points to the growing role of blended finance structures in climate investing, especially for projects that need patient capital, risk-sharing and long-term outcome-based financing.

GenZero also took a new position in Seraya Partners Fund I, supporting Asia’s energy transition and sustainable infrastructure development.

Portfolio Outcomes: Land, Jobs and Emissions Transparency

Beyond climate impact figures, GenZero’s report also highlights broader portfolio outcomes. Land under sustainable management grew to more than 900,000 hectares, up from about 750,000 hectares at the end of 2024. The share of investees measuring Scope 1 and 2 emissions increased by 35 percentage points to 58% of the portfolio for the financial year ending 31 March 2025. More than 2,100 jobs were created across investee companies under an expanded impact measurement framework.

For investors and corporates, these metrics are commercially relevant.

Land under sustainable management can indicate the scale of nature-based investment activity. Emissions transparency reflects the maturity of portfolio companies and their readiness for disclosure requirements. Job creation helps demonstrate that climate investing can also contribute to economic and social outcomes.

This broader measurement approach may become more important as investors increasingly seek to understand not only emissions impact, but also operational maturity and co-benefits.

Building Carbon and SAF Market Infrastructure

GenZero’s report also shows that the firm is investing time and resources into market-building initiatives.

It launched the Action for a Resilient Climate Coalition to mobilise financing towards high-quality climate projects. It expanded the Green Fuel Forward initiative to 45 participating organisations, supporting voluntary demand for sustainable aviation fuel certificates across Asia Pacific. It joined the All Aboard Coalition, a collaborative investor group supporting the scale-up of climate technologies. It also joined the Steering Committee of the ASEAN Common Carbon Framework, contributing to regional carbon market development.

This is important from a business standpoint because many climate solutions require ecosystem development before they can scale.

SAF producers need demand. Carbon project developers need buyers and standards. Climate technology companies need investors, offtakers and policy support. Regional carbon markets need transparency, legal clarity and cross-border harmonisation.

GenZero’s co-publication of “Foundations for the Carbon Market” with Eng and Co. LLC and PwC Singapore, in partnership with the Singapore Sustainable Finance Association, also points to the importance of legal clarity and decision-useful disclosure in strengthening voluntary carbon markets.

The Business Case for Climate Investment

GenZero’s latest report is important because it reflects the business evolution of climate investing. The sector is moving beyond broad ESG framing towards a more operational question: which climate solutions are ready for capital, what financing structures can help them scale, and how can impact be measured credibly?

The answer, based on GenZero’s portfolio, appears to be diversified.

Nature-based investments can deliver land, biodiversity and carbon outcomes. Technology-based solutions can target hard-to-abate sectors. Carbon ecosystem enablers can build the infrastructure needed for companies to decarbonise and for carbon finance to flow more effectively.

For Singapore and Asia, the report also highlights a growing regional role in climate finance. GenZero’s participation in the ASEAN Common Carbon Framework, SAF certificate demand-building and sustainable infrastructure investments demonstrates how Singapore-based capital can influence decarbonisation across Asia and global markets.

The business opportunity is substantial, but so are the execution challenges. Climate technologies need market demand, policy support, operational scaling, credible measurement and investor patience.

GenZero’s second Sustainability Report suggests that the firm is leaning into that complexity. Its message to the market is that climate investing must be commercially grounded, measurable and pragmatic.

That may be the next phase of the climate investment industry: not climate ambition alone, but climate impact that can be financed, measured and scaled.