Carbon insurer Oka has planted its flag in Singapore. The London-based company, which writes business through Lloyd’s Syndicate 1922, now intends to push a lineup of climate and carbon products into one of Asia’s busiest financial hubs.
Founder and CEO Chris Slater framed the move as a chance to get closer to Singaporean clients. Lloyd’s approval to write locally, he said, gives Oka the insurance machinery to support projects that pull in capital and expand the climate transition industry. It’s a technical milestone, but also a signal: Oka wants in on the region’s carbon economy.
Lloyd’s approval to write business domestically enables us to partner more closely with Singaporean clients, providing the insurance infrastructure needed to attract capital to… new projects and scale the growth of the climate transition industry
Chris Slater, Founder and CEO at Oka
Singapore itself sees carbon markets as central to its decarbonization push. The government signed the Paris Agreement in 2016, committing to curb warming while acknowledging the limits of its domestic renewable capacity.
Land and population density cut the room for large-scale solar or wind. Which means international cooperation—trading carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris deal—becomes not just useful but necessary.
Officials say they want the city-state to serve as a carbon services and trading hub for Southeast Asia, a region rich in credit supply.
A joint study for the Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore suggested the opportunity could generate between $1.8bn and $5.6bn in added economic value. That’s a hefty spread, but even the low end points to serious growth.
Oka clearly sees the same math. The firm said Singapore’s Article 6 frameworks, tax regimes, and regional finance clout make it an obvious anchor.
It will target buyers, developers, and lenders while building products to shield against invalidation, delivery failures, reversals, and political risks across voluntary and compliance markets. Climate transition projects and green finance deals get coverage too.
Slater has argued before that carbon offsets are a multibn-dollar business still missing the insurance guardrails to scale.
With Singapore stepping forward as a carbon hub, Oka is betting that gap won’t stay open for long.
