SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Joseph Chun, Shook Lin & Bok LLP
SGD1 billion must also make the ISSB climate- related financial disclosures (excluding Scope 3 GHG emissions). • The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Author- ity (“ACRA”) has announced that from FY 2030, large non-listed companies (annual revenue of at least SGD1 billion and total assets of at least SGD500 million) must make the ISSB climate- related financial disclosures (excluding Scope 3 emissions) and from FY 2032 must obtain external limited assurance for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. • The Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) issued its separate Guidelines for Environmental Risk Management for banks, insurers and asset managers (collectively “FIs”) in 2020, setting out MAS’ expectations on environmental risk manage- ment by FIs, and for FIs to publicly disclose their governance and strategy, risk management, and environmental risk information. • To mitigate the risk of greenwashing, MAS’ Circular 02/2022 has clarified for fund managers and trus- tees its expectation of how existing requirements under the Code on Collective Investment Schemes and the Securities and Futures (Offers of Invest- ments) (Collective Investment Schemes) Regula- tions apply to retail ESG funds, and the disclosure and reporting guidelines applicable to these funds. • MAS also consulted in 2023 on its proposed Guidelines on Transition Planning, setting out MAS’ expectations that they have a sound transition planning process to angle effective climate change mitigation and adaptation measures by their cus- tomers. 6.6 Environmental Audits Owners of buildings with post-2010 planning permis- sion; and owners of “prescribed buildings” (buildings of at least 5,000 m2 excluding residential develop- ments, industrial buildings, railway premises, port ser- vices and facilities, and airport services and facilities) that have undergone “major energy-use changes” (ie, the installation, substantial alteration or replacement of a building’s water-cooled/air-cooled chiller) since 2014, must subject their buildings to mandatory peri- odic energy audits if issued a notice by BCA to do so.
NEA “strongly encourages” HS licensees and per- mit holders to implement a safety audit procedure in accordance with its Safety Audit Guidelines.
7. Personal Liability 7.1 Directors and Other Officers
Directors and other officers of a company can also be held personally criminally liable in addition to the company’s criminal liability for an environmental law offence committed by the company. This applies if the company’s offence took place with the consent or knowledge of the director or officer, or if the com- pany’s offence resulted from any actions or failures attributed to the director or officer. In such cases, the director or officer may be subject to the same range of penalties applicable for the offence committed by the company. Directors and other officers of a company are gener- ally not personally liable for environmental damage caused by the company; however: • legislation may provide otherwise – for example, clean-up costs may be recovered from directors and officers under the EPMA if they are person- ally criminally liable for breaches of environmental law committed by companies with their consent or connivance; • directors and other officers may be personally liable if they are a party to a contract that holds them liable for the environmental damage caused by the company, or if they have personally commit- ted a tort (see 10.1 Civil Claims ); • insurance (directors and officers (“D&O”) liability insurance) coverage may be available to indemnify directors and officers against personal liability for financial loss resulting from wrongful acts, such as negligence; albeit, D&O insurance policies will typi- cally exclude liability arising from wilful breaches; and • public policy generally prohibits insuring against criminal liability, and D&O insurance policies also typically exclude coverage for criminal fines and penalties.
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