Public to share its ideas on creating greener S’pore: Teo

SINGAPORE — As the Government prepares to commit to a global pact on climate change next year, it will be asking for public feedback on how the nation can reduce its carbon emissions and promote green growth, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean at the launch of a new climate change exhibition at the Science Centre Singapore yesterday.

The National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) will lead the feedback exercise, which will start next year.

International efforts to reach a global agreement on reducing emissions beyond 2020 are scheduled to take place at a United Nations meeting in Paris next year. Ahead of that, Mr Teo, who also chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change, said countries will be expected to put forth new commitments to reduce emissions from year 2020.

“Even though we are a small island state with limited access to renewable energy sources, Singapore will do our part as a responsible member of the international community to manage our carbon emissions,” he said.

Since this could entail changes in industry practices and individual lifestyle habits, Mr Yuen Sai Kuan, director of the 3P Network Division in NCCS, said the public consultation aims to seek views from stakeholders who might be affected by emission reduction measures early on.

Noting that Singapore has already pledged to cut emissions by 7 per cent to 11 per cent below 2020 business-as-usual (BAU) levels — and, in the case of a binding international agreement, by 16 per cent — Mr Yuen said Singapore would still have to review its post-2020 targets.

“A key thrust of our emission-reduction efforts will be energy efficiency, so we’ll be looking at existing measures to improve our energy efficiency, as well as new measures,” he said.

In addition to getting more people to use less energy or use energy wisely, the public consultation will also seek feedback on possible new measures, such as lowering the threshold of the existing Energy Conservation Act, to encourage more companies to improve their energy management practices.

The Government may also look into sectors such as households and transport, he added.

Even while countries struggle to meet their 2020 targets set in the Kyoto Protocol, negotiations for the new 2015 international agreement are already under way.

“The US-China agreement announced a few days ago is certainly a positive step because (they are) the largest carbon emitters in the world. So, if both of them agree to commit and do their part to reduce carbon emissions, I think it sets the pace or open the doors for more agreement,” said Mr Yuen.

CLIMATE CHANGE EXHIBITION

Amid growing concerns over climate change and its impacts, Mr Teo officially launched the new S$3 million Climate Change Climate Challenge Exhibition at the Science Centre yesterday.

The exhibition, a revamp of a previous exhibit that opened in 2008, will be a permanent feature and is a collaboration between the Science Centre, NCCS and Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS).

“One of the things we tried to do in this exhibit is, as far as possible, we wanted to base the facts (people get) on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report,” said Dr Chris Gordon, director of the Centre for Climate Research Singapore under the MSS.

“So we’ve tried to make that part of it up-to-date, but (we’ve) also tried to make it very engaging for people.”

Visitors will be able to explore eight different zones with interactive exhibits that will take them through the causes of climate change, its impact on Singapore and the region, and how individuals have a role to play in reducing Singapore’s carbon footprint by adopting climate-friendly habits.

They will also have a chance to role-play as meteorologists and experience first-hand how the MSS uses technology to understand complex weather systems.

“Not forgetting the (nurturing of) future generations of scientists who can help tackle climate change, we hope this exhibition can pique our students’ interest and set them on course to become experts in the area,” added Mr Yuen.