People who want to make the world a greener and more eco-friendly place invested a lot more in Southeast Asia last year. A big part of this has been green data center projects, which saw a huge rise in demand in parts of the Asian market. However, reports say they may need more than a $6-billion investment.
Bain & Company, GenZero, Standard Chartered, and Temasek did an analysis that showed the $6.3 billion in green investments that went into the area. This was more than 20% more than the equivalent amount the previous year.
The main “green investment” in the area has still been renewable energy, but green data center projects have come in right behind it and made the most progress this year. That being said, data centers are very popular right now because new technologies like AI are always coming out.
The governments of Malaysia and Singapore were the main ones in Southeast Asia that pushed for progress in green data centers. More energy will be used in these places, so they will use less fossil fuels. The money for these projects put the country light years ahead of other places when it came to green spending.
The biggest phone company in Singapore, Singtel, just got a $400 million green loan with a five-year term. The loan is meant to make all of the company’s data centers more efficient. The Singaporean government has also put out a guideline for these data centers that makes them more environmentally friendly.
“United States will be better able to get private investment if they take the lead in planning their decarbonization roadmap with clear policies, helpful rules, and detailed funding plans,” said Kimberly Tan, head of investments at GenZero.
