아시아 데이터센터의 63%가 물 부족 위험에 직면해 있으며, 싱가포르는 데이터센터에 대한 금융 심사 기준을 개정했다.

Singapore has revised the sustainability criteria it uses to assess data centres outside the city-state for green and transition financing. The changes recognise the challenges facing facilities in water-stressed locations.

The Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (SSFA), supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), launched the second edition of the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance on 11 November 2026 at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey. The framework updates technical screening criteria across four sectors: energy, maritime, iron and steel, and data centres.

The taxonomy was first introduced in December 2023. It gives financial institutions criteria for identifying economic activities that qualify as green or are undergoing a credible transition.

**The power and water trade-off**

The revision addresses two measures of data centre resource efficiency: Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE). PUE measures total facility electricity consumption relative to the energy used by IT equipment. WUE measures water consumption relative to IT energy use.

Lower values generally indicate better efficiency. However, cooling systems that reduce water consumption can require more electricity, which creates competing requirements for developers in locations where water is scarce. Under the revised taxonomy, facilities outside Singapore can account for this trade-off when demonstrating compliance.

According to the second edition, published on 11 November 2026, data centres outside Singapore must achieve an average annual PUE no greater than 1.40 minus 0.0545 times WUE to qualify as Green, with WUE capped at 2.2. For existing facilities seeking Amber classification, the PUE limit is 1.45 minus 0.04545 times WUE, with WUE capped at 2.3.

The thresholds allow facilities that consume less water to operate at a higher PUE. For example, a facility with a WUE of 0.2 can qualify as Green with a PUE of up to 1.389, compared with 1.280 for a facility with a WUE of 2.2. This gives operators using water-saving cooling systems more flexibility on electricity efficiency while maintaining limits on both measures.

The SSFA said the changes are intended to avoid disadvantaging facilities that prioritise water conservation. For data centres within Singapore, the criteria remain aligned with the Building and Construction Authority-IMDA Green Mark framework.

**Implications for financing**

The revised criteria could affect how financial institutions evaluate data centre developments across Asia, particularly where local water conditions influence cooling technology and electricity consumption.

The taxonomy is not a mandatory operating requirement. It is a classification framework for assessing activities seeking green or transition financing.

Alongside the revision, the SSFA published an addendum to its Guidance for Leveraging the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy in Green and Transition Financing, first released in July 2025. The November 2026 addendum expands guidance on activities supporting green and transition projects, including manufacturing, distribution, installation and professional services. It also clarifies how equity investments, alongside bonds and loans, may fall within the framework's scope, subject to safeguards on the use of proceeds and demonstrated environmental benefits.

Abigail Ng, chief sustainability officer at MAS, said the updated taxonomy would give financial institutions and companies "greater clarity and confidence to finance green and transition activities in Asia."

The SSFA has not quantified how much additional data centre investment the revision could generate. Its financial impact will depend on how lenders apply the criteria and whether individual projects meet the relevant requirements.

**Singapore's wider sustainability strategy**

The revision follows Singapore's passage of the Digital Infrastructure Bill in October 2026, which establishes a statutory framework for mandatory data centre energy-efficiency standards. Operators of facilities with a critical IT load of at least 3MW will require licences and must meet PUE requirements. The detailed standards will be set out in regulations and codes of practice, with implementation expected to begin in 2027.

During the parliamentary debate, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Tan Kiat How said Singapore's data centres consumed approximately 6.5TWh of electricity in 2024, slightly more than 10% of national electricity consumption.

Singapore's Green Data Centre Roadmap, launched by IMDA in May 2024, also sets an ambition for data centres to achieve a PUE of 1.3 or lower within 10 years. Separately, national water agency PUB has introduced a WUE target of two cubic metres per megawatt-hour or lower for new and existing data centres. The target is not itself a mandatory limit under the new legislation, although the framework allows water-efficiency requirements to be introduced in future.

In August 2026, the Economic Development Board and IMDA provisionally allocated a further 200MW of data centre capacity to Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. Each received 50MW under the second Data Centre Call for Application. The selected operators committed to sourcing more than 50% of their new capacity's energy requirements from green sources, exceeding the exercise's minimum requirement.

While these domestic measures operate separately from the revised taxonomy, they reflect Singapore's broader approach to managing data centre resource consumption. The regional significance of the financing changes is underscored by ASEAN's Guide for Sustainable Data Centre Development, published in December 2025, which reports that 63% of Asian data centres are located in water-stressed areas.

For developers and financiers, accounting for local water constraints could become an important consideration in assessing the sustainability of future infrastructure investments.