Catalyst Role for Singapore in Addressing Climate Change Issues

4 Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources given Singapore's small land size, what catalyst role can we play on the local, regional and international fronts to tackle climate change.

The Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M): Mr Deputy Speaker, to effectively address a global problem like climate change and its impacts, we need a strong global response. This is why Singapore is a strong advocate for a multi-lateral, rules-based approach to addressing climate change. We work with other like-minded countries at the United Nations (UN) to push for the best possible multi-lateral deal on climate change.

We are privileged to have played an instrumental facilitator role in these talks, which culminated with the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the agreements on the Katowice Climate Package in 2018 as well as the Chile Madrid Time for Action in 2019. While not perfect, these agreements will help to establish a virtuous cycle of climate actions by all countries. The challenge is to maintain this momentum of global climate action at a time when the multi-lateral system is under strain.

Singapore will continue our active and constructive engagement in the negotiations. We will work with other countries, including the incoming UK COP-26 Presidency, to strengthen the multi-lateral framework of cooperation on climate change and push for a good outcome at the next Climate Conference in Glasgow.

Regionally, we have taken an active role to galvanise climate action. As Chair of ASEAN in 2018, we convened the first-ever Special ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Climate Action (SAMCA) and Expanded-SAMCA, where ASEAN and China, Japan and the ROK reaffirmed our political commitments and discussed ways to step up regional climate action.

We have collaborated with partners to improve our understanding of climate change and its impact, through research and institutions like the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre, which is based in Singapore. Through our Climate Action Package, we have partnered and supported fellow developing countries to implement their Paris commitments and enhance climate action. In October 2019, we co-organised with New Zealand a workshop on the Paris rule book to help countries in the region better understand their obligations under the Paris Agreement and to identify concrete actions and strategies that can be pursued. Just last month, we co-organised with the NDC Partnership and the UNFCCC Secretariat another workshop to discuss how ASEAN countries can update their climate pledges. We hope that this workshop will facilitate the submission of updated climate pledges from ASEAN countries this year. Looking ahead, we will work with Vietnam as ASEAN Chair this year to sustain the momentum of climate action in the region.

We are also taking strong action at home. Notwithstanding our constraints in deploying renewable energy at scale, we are committed to playing our full part to tackle climate change, and transform our economy towards a low-carbon future.

Singapore implemented an economy-wide carbon tax last year – the first in Southeast Asia to do so – as a key plank of our mitigation strategy. The revenue will be used to support emission reduction projects and help businesses become more resource and energy efficient.

We will also push the bounds of innovation, such as deploying floating solar photovoltaic systems on our reservoirs and offshore, to make up for our shortage of land area to deploy them. Such innovations have given us confidence to raise our level of ambition to double our solar deployment target from 1 Gigawatt peak (GWp) beyond 2020 to at least 2 GWp by 2030.

We are also greening our physical and transport infrastructure. We are aiming for 80% of buildings in Singapore to be green by 2030 and for 90% of peak hour commuting trips to be via public transport, active mobility or shared transport by 2040. Our Zero Waste Masterplan will transform Singapore to a Circular Economy, where materials are retained and reused in the value chain for as long as possible. This will help to reduce our carbon footprint and complement our efforts to address climate change.

The Government can only do so much on our own. We are therefore heartened that Singaporeans, especially our youth, understand the importance of this issue and are prepared to take climate-friendly actions in a whole-of-nation effort to address climate change. In 2018, we had a successful Year of Climate Action rallying community groups, grassroots organisations, corporations, schools and non-governmental organisations to take action for a sustainable future. Collectively, we held more than 800 climate action-related events across the People, Private, Public (3P) sectors – equivalent to two events a day. More than 342,000 individuals, organisations and educational institutions have pledged to take climate action. In 2019, we sustained the momentum with an inaugural Climate Action Week which featured ground-up activities organised by our 3P partners. This year, we continue to encourage Singaporeans to work with us to co-create and co-deliver solutions to game-change climate change.

Climate change is an existential challenge for Singapore. To ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy a vibrant and liveable city, we will continue to put sustainability at the centre of everything we do and work with 3P partners and Singaporeans to combat climate change and transition towards a climate resilient and low-carbon future. We recognise that by our actions alone we cannot stop climate change. But we hope that through our actions, we can play our small part to catalyse change and contribute to international and regional efforts to galvanise climate action.

Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade): I thank the Minister for his very comprehensive answer. I am very encouraged by the very pro-active affirmations that Minister has made. Notwithstanding what we do to tackle this global issue, we will inevitably be affected by what others in the region do or not do. My question to the Minister is, is there anything that we can do to encourage and get, in particular, the neighbouring countries to also do their part, so that, as a whole, no one needs to suffer the consequences of another country's inaction in this regard.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Actually, until 2015, the whole world was waiting for everybody to do something, but not themselves. In fact, there was always an argument about who started it first, who had a bigger responsibility and who should do more. But, with the Paris Agreement, every country now, has agreed to at least put their best foot forward and try to do what they can do within the constraints of their own country, to try and reduce emissions by 2030. This is what we call the "Nationally Determined Commitments".

By 2030, we will also be asking all these countries who have agreed to the Paris Agreement framework to do even more. While in the first stage was to get everybody to do their best and to follow the rules in committing to deliver their best, in reality, Science is telling us, you have to do much more than what you are doing today. That will put us on a better footing, once we get the 2015 Paris Agreement actually operational. It is already a big problem facing many countries, as we see, as we go year after year, trying to get the rules agreed. In particular, the last instance, on the trading rules, "how can we – if we do not meet our commitments – be able to trade carbon with countries that have extra credits". Even though it looks quite mechanical and simple, it fell through in the last agreement.

But I am quite optimistic that at the end of the day, leaders, politicians are listening – leaders and politicians all over the world are listening to their youths, loud and clear, they want to make sure that their future is a sustainable future and even in Singapore, we really have to re-steer our economy, the way we live, to make sure that what we do now, will also deliver a sustainable future for our children and generations to come.

Mr Deputy Speaker: May I remind Members to keep your phones on silent mode and not to press something inadvertently. Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I think Minister shared the good news that Singapore will be updating our climate pledge. Could i just check when will we be doing so?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: We are finalising; I hope very soon.