Koh Lian Pin
Singapore
“By investing in mental health initiatives in academia, we can improve the productivity and performance of our academic workforce, which can have a positive impact on our economy as a whole.”
“I thank the Minister, the two Senior Ministers of State and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for their responses. I just have one clarification question. As Singapore pursues our ambition to be a climate services hub, we are seeding our ecosystem of sustainability solutions providers by welcoming and working with international partners.”
“Mdm Chair, electrifying Singapore’s vehicle population is a key goal of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. The Government has introduced a series of initiatives to encourage and support EV adoption. Can the Government provide an update on some of the key initiatives, including the EV Charging Act and the EV Common Charger Grant?”
“Sir, to ensure our climate resilience, Singapore has committed significant resources to the research and development (R&D) of climate mitigation and adaptation solutions through Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 (RIE2025) along with the commissioning of various climate resilience-related consultancy and infrastructural projects.”
“Increasing Recycling Efforts Domestic recycling is an important part of Singapore's sustainability journey. Can the Government share the outcomes of initiatives such as the pilot programme involving transparent recycling bins and dedicated recycling chutes in HDB blocks?”
“Sir, Singapore has several funding and incentive schemes to encourage communities and youths to get involved and help achieve our national climate targets as part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030.”
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“Mr Speaker, Sir, I declare my interest as a professor at NUS. Budget 2022 introduces measures that reflect the many challenges and opportunities that Singapore faces as we emerge from this pandemic. The Budget addresses important bread-and-butter issues by investing in immediate support for our businesses, our workforce and our households. These measures will help Singaporeans manage the cost of living, ensure we continue to track a strong and steady economic recovery and create new jobs and opportunities for all. At the same time, the Budget also acknowledges several additional priorities, such as strengthening our social support system, transitioning to a greener economy and tackling climate change as a global emergency. These social, economic and environmental sustainability measures are hugely important, because they help build our resilience against present and future shocks to the well-being of our fellow Singaporeans, our economy and our natural environment. Achieving these goals will not be easy and requires careful consideration of the many trade-offs, particularly when different priorities require common and limited resources, such as our land. Some of these new measures may also require businesses to acknowledge the environmental costs of their activities. Faced with these challenges, it may be useful to look back at the most testing times in Singapore's history, for insights and inspiration that may guide us forward decisively and successfully.”
“The EST convened several Alliances for Action (AfA), which represent a new form of private-public partnership with a strong bias towards action in capturing new opportunities. And capture new opportunities the EST did indeed. The AfA on Sustainability was prescient, in anticipating the need for a trusted platform, that would provide transparency in carbon trading for businesses to support nature-based carbon projects. This led to the establishment of Climate Impact X, a global exchange and marketplace for high-quality carbon credits, through a partnership between DBS, SGX, Standard Chartered and Temasek. Who would have thought that one day, Singapore’s most important financial institutions – the engines of our economy – will play such an important role in the conservation and restoration of our natural environment? So, we are capable of thinking beyond the dichotomy of economic development versus environmental protection. The tension between these and other societal priorities will likely remain. But this constant tension can be helpful in reminding us, that in our transition towards a low-carbon society, no one succeeds until everyone succeeds. Sir, I stand in support of this Motion.”
“I believe we have the ability and responsibility to work across sectors, nations and generations, to realise these opportunities and to help us transition to a low-carbon society. Perhaps a more pertinent issue is to ensure that carbon offsetting will actually deliver the benefits it promises. Indeed, there are concerns about the lack of transparency in the global carbon marketplace today, in terms of the quality and pricing of carbon credits. This has posed a deterrent to both buyers and producers, and created a bottleneck to both the demand and supply of nature-based carbon credits. More importantly, we need to ensure that carbon offsets are not being used for greenwashing to create a veneer of sustainability, as fellow Member Assoc Prof Jamus Lim pointed out. There is always the risk that some companies or individuals might buy up carbon credits for environmental claims, without actually making any effort to reduce their carbon footprint. Therefore, we need to hold to high standards of accountability, both the buyers and producers of carbon credits. On the supply side, we need to ensure that carbon projects deliver real, additional and permanent benefits, not just for climate change mitigation, but also for communities and biodiversity on the ground. On the demand side, we need to ensure that users of carbon credits have in place, concrete policies, plans and actions to transition to a lower carbon economy, and are not relying solely on offsetting to reduce their net carbon emissions. In May 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat set up the Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST), led by Minister Desmond Lee and Mr Tan Chong Meng.”
“Carbon offsetting as a concept may present various technological, political and ethical conundrums. But insofar as decarbonisation remains the top priority and effective guardrails for carbon offsetting are in place, certain types of carbon offsets are not only viable, but may be indispensable, for us to meet our climate goals. A carbon offset credit is a tradable certificate or permit that represents the allowance to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide, or equivalent greenhouse gas. These carbon credits can be produced from different types of clean technology projects, emissions reduction projects or carbon capture projects, including both technology-based and nature-based solutions. Nature-based carbon projects are important because they represent low-hanging fruits for us to immediately turn off one tap of our carbon emissions by ending deforestation and start to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through reforestation. And that is not all. Nature-based carbon projects, such as mangrove conservation and restoration, can also deliver many other benefits for local communities and biodiversity that are well-aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Sir, as a city-state, Singapore faces the geographical constraint of limited land and coastlines for implementing nature-based projects at scale. But by the same token, we have the good fortune of being geographically situated in a region with bountiful opportunities to work with nature in our fight against climate change. In fact, there are at least 160 million hectares of investible, carbon-rich forests across Southeast Asia that could provide an annual supply of some 400 million tonnes of nature-based carbon credits, if they came under protection as carbon projects.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, please allow me to declare my professional interest as Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore, and a member of the International Advisory Council of Climate Impact X. Many businesses have shown increasing interest in improving their environmental, social and governance performance. In particular, they want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their value chain, to meet carbon neutral or net-zero emission goals. However, many businesses are also finding it difficult and challenging to completely transition away from fossil fuels by mid-century. Mr Sunny Verghese, the CEO of Olam, made a telling remark during Temasek’s Ecosperity Week in October last year. After speaking to over 200 fellow chief executives who have made net-zero commitments, Mr Verghese realised that most of them may not know how to get there. So, while it is important to set ambitious targets for a low-carbon society, it may be even more important to develop and execute the strategies, policies and actions for us to achieve these goals. That is what this Motion is calling for and why I fully support it. Sir, we need to take concrete steps to decarbonise. This will include putting an appropriate price on carbon to internalise the social, economic, environmental and climate costs of carbon emissions, as my fellow Members have highlighted. At the same time, there is growing recognition that carbon offsetting may need to be part of our immediate strategy as we transition to a low-carbon society. What is carbon offsetting? In a nutshell, it is a way for companies or individuals to invest in value-adding environmental projects to balance out their own carbon footprint.”
“Green Energy Sources for Energy Reset An energy reset is one of the five key initiatives in the Singapore Green Plan. Using cleaner energy has been put forward as a way to lower Singapore's carbon footprint. The Energy Market Authority, or EMA, announced last year that it is tapping on regional power grids for cleaner energy resources as a strategy to further diversify Singapore's energy supply. In fact, the EMA is embarking on a two-year trial for electricity imports from Malaysia to Singapore. In assessing and refining the technical and regulatory frameworks for importing electricity into Singapore, what steps is the Ministry taking to evaluate and benchmark the carbon footprint, at source, of imported electricity to meet the cleaner energy goals of the Singapore Green Plan? Alternative Energy”
“The Singapore Green Plan includes a series of initiatives to encourage a shift away from the ownership and use of internal combustion engine vehicles towards the adoption of cleaner energy vehicles, including Electric Vehicles and hybrid Electric Vehicles. This cleaner energy transition will almost certainly reduce air pollution and improve air quality on and around our road networks. It would also reduce the consumption of petrol and diesel fuels in our transport sector. However, the operation of Electric Vehicles still requires the production of electricity and its distribution to the expected 60,000 charging points across the island. As we transition to having only cleaner energy vehicles on our roads, what does that translate to in terms of the additional demands on our power production capacity, infrastructure and energy security? What plans are being considered for Singapore to meet these additional power demands? Perhaps more importantly, if Singapore were to continue to rely primarily on natural gas to generate the electricity that we need in the foreseeable future, what would the net carbon emissions savings of the transition to cleaner energy vehicles in our transport sector be? Additionally, has the Ministry considered any intermediate milestones as indicators of success towards achieving the 2030 target of requiring all newly registered vehicles to be of cleaner energy models, and the 2040 target of having only cleaner energy vehicles on the road? Finally, the biggest transformative win, in terms of reducing carbon emissions in Singapore's transport sector, arguably, is to increase the use of our public transport system. What steps is the Ministry considering to help us achieve this outcome?”
“Mdm Chair, permission to take both cuts together.”
“Perhaps another improvement for the Ministry to consider is to adopt a more precautionary approach in our EIA framework. At the moment, the Ministry and relevant agencies as technical experts, shoulder the initial burden and responsibility of having to assess the likelihood of any environmental impact that may result from development and the need for any environmental studies and mitigation measures. Perhaps the initial burden should instead rest on the developer, to always be required to show, prior to development, that there would not be impacts beyond acceptable thresholds. And if there would be potentially unavoidable impacts, to require the developer to put in place and demonstrate the adequacy of mitigation measures. I think this preliminary layer of information can add to the context-specific set of considerations that the Ministry and relevant agencies will have to act on as decision-makers. Ultimately, a sound EIA framework helps to increase transparency in our urban planning decisions, encourage stakeholder participation and ensure greater public support of development plans and mitigation measures at later stages. As we continue to discuss and debate the various ways to improve the EIA framework and other key ingredients of good environmental governance, we should not lose sight of the overarching goals and outcomes that the public, private and people sectors all seek to achieve. I believe we all want to maintain public trust in the credibility and integrity of the processes by which we evaluate the different priorities and trade-offs of our society, so that we can make the most informed decisions on our natural capital for the benefit of the current and future generations of Singaporeans.”
“And upon the completion of those investigations, I am confident that the necessary deterrents and safeguards will be put in place to prevent it from ever happening again. Apart from the premature clearance at Kranji, I think there are other important issues that may be even more deserving of our attention. For example, what must we do to ensure the success of the ecological corridor that would run through the Agri-Food Innovation Park at Kranji, in fulfilling its function of increasing ecological connectivity across Singapore? How can we do the same for the other ecological corridors on the island? How do we ensure that the environmental monitoring and management plan for Kranji will deliver its intended outcome of mitigating any ecological impact on Sungei Pang Sua and neighbouring habitats, such as Mandai mangrove and mudflat? Perhaps, these questions need to be discussed in consultation with the nature and scientific communities. I am also happy to learn that the Ministry will continue efforts to strengthen our Environmental Impact Assessment, or EIA, framework. EIAs are an essential part of good environmental governance, as they empower and enable the authorities to get the most complete information on a proposed development, through rigorous scientific protocols and engagements with nature and community stakeholders. The recent announcement by Minister Desmond Lee to explore the potential of centralising EIA processes is another significant and positive step in the right direction. A centralised EIA approach could help reduce the risk of any conflict of interest, increase and maintain EIA standards and eliminate any ad-hoc and inconsistent practices.”
“What more can we do by leveraging Singapore's natural capital to strengthen our ecological, climate and socio-economic resilience? That is why I am excited by Minister Desmond Lee’s recent announcement to engage the nature community in building a more comprehensive picture of Singapore’s island-wide eco-systems and connectivity, and in understanding how specific sites connect to our nature cores, buffers and corridors. 6.30 pm The Ministry's plan to do this in a scientific and systematic manner is extremely important and a huge step forward for us to understand the value of green spaces in the broader context of Singapore's natural capital at the national scale. I am confident that this effort to be led by our National Parks Board, in partnership with our academic nature and community stakeholders, will produce invaluable perspectives, science and tools to help inform Singapore's long-term planning decisions. The Green Plan conversations are therefore a vital and necessary platform for us to engage in open discussions, consultations and communications to co-create an effective environmental management framework and set of processes for achieving the intended targets and outcomes of the City in Nature initiative and the Singapore Green Plan. By working together to consider the green spaces we have left, not in isolation but in their totality, we can make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Premature Clearance of Kranji Woodland With regards to the Kranji Woodland incident, I am confident that ongoing investigations by the relevant agencies will identify any gaps or breaches that may have resulted in the premature land clearance.”
“These Conversations are also an important opportunity for the public, private and people sectors to communicate even more effectively with one another to strengthen our mutual trust and social compact, as we manage the inevitable and growing tensions between economic development and nature conservation in Singapore. For example: Perhaps, the Government could explain more plainly to the people why it cannot ease the demand for land, if that is indeed the case. Perhaps, the nature community could explain more convincingly to the Government why green spaces should be valued as our natural capital and national assets. And perhaps, all of us could demonstrate that we can take a pragmatic, calibrated and science-based approach to face our challenges, make hard decisions and co-create solutions as a society. I think most Singaporeans do appreciate that there are multiple priorities, constraints and trade-offs that need to be considered in making our urban planning decisions. On the other hand, as a biophilic, or nature-loving, society, many of us wish to hold on to every little piece of remaining greenery we understand to be relatively pristine. That is why the public, private and people sectors may also benefit from having the bigger picture of what remains of our green spaces in Singapore to help frame our discussions and align our perspectives and priorities. To appreciate this bigger picture may require us to answer a few important questions, including: Where are the green spaces that we must defend at all costs? Where are the necessary ecological buffers and corridors that we need to protect? What other green spaces are there in Singapore, where are they located and what are their marginal values for nature conservation?”
“Mdm Chair, the Singapore Green Plan 2030 includes several on-going and new initiatives. One of these initiatives is City in Nature. The targets of City in Nature include doubling our annual tree planting rate, increasing the land area of our nature parks by over 50%, and adding 1,000 hectares of green spaces. These are ambitious and important targets for transforming Singapore into an even greener and more beautiful city by 2030. Can the Ministry share its plans for tracking progress towards achieving these targets over the next decade? Perhaps, more importantly, what does success look like in terms of the outcomes of City in Nature for the public, private and people sectors? City in Nature Green Spaces Green spaces are important for the many benefits they provide to Singapore. These benefits may include conserving biodiversity, addressing climate change impacts, and improving the physical and mental health of our fellow Singaporeans. The success of City in Nature in delivering these outcomes, hinges not just on the amount of additional green spaces that we set aside to meet our target, but also on the quality of these green spaces, with respect to the different benefits we hope to derive from them. Green spaces are not all the same. In fact, our understanding of the different types and values of green spaces could be a matter for public consultation and discussion, as part of the Green Plan Conversations. The Green Plan Conversations are a timely and constructive opportunity for the public, private and people sectors to take a holistic approach in considering what should be part of Singapore’s current natural resources and future natural heritage.”
“I will be 45 this April, maybe still considered young by some Members' standards, but old enough to have been a child in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I still remember back when I was in Primary school, at Bukit Panjang Primary School. My parents brought me on my first overseas trip to Sydney, Australia during one of the school holidays. When the Australians we met heard that we were from Singapore, they spoke very highly about Singapore's reputation of being clean and green, of having the world's best airport, busiest seaport, and so on. And I remember the immense pride I felt as a very young Singaporean. I think our youths today are ready to be even prouder of Singapore, especially if Singapore takes seriously and demonstrates global leadership in the many causes that our youths care deeply and passionately about, including climate change. Of course, climate change is a problem much bigger than Singapore. But tackling this problem is also an opportunity for us to be part of something much bigger than ourselves, and be proud of it. How much is this national pride worth? To me, it is priceless. Mr Speaker, I support this Motion.”
“To achieve these outcomes, we need to invest in the research, development and implementation of both human-engineered and nature-based climate solutions, including forest conservation and reforestation. Achieving these outcomes also requires us to work closer together as a society. The Emerging Stronger Taskforce, co-chaired by Minister Desmond Lee and Mr Tan Chong Meng, is an example of a much-needed Government-corporate partnership. The Taskforce is developing clear roadmaps for new growth areas and job creation opportunities, as Singapore emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger, cleaner and greener. We also have many Government-People partnerships, such as the PEERS Network, SG Cares Community Network and Youth Stewards for Nature. Widening and deepening these partnerships may require the Government to take a more active role than before in communicating to the public, some of the thought processes and reasoning behind certain hard decisions and policies. Nurturing such partnerships may also require the Government to be even more receptive to feedback from the public on the changing needs and priorities of society, especially with regards to climate change, nature conservation and sustainable development. Conversely, effective partnerships may also require civil society and the public to understand the broader context of Singapore's many constraints and considerations within which hard decisions have to be made. Importantly, as Singapore embraces sustainability in a less certain and more polarised world, it becomes ever more pressing for the Government, the corporate sector and the wider public to work together to tackle new challenges and to capitalise on emerging opportunities on the horizon.”
“Of course, we need energy to drive our cars, to run our businesses and to keep the lights on in our homes. Of course, we need land for schools, for hospitals, for housing and for the many other legitimate priorities of our society. But, at the same time, we also need to weigh these priorities against the priority of tackling the existential threat of climate change. Singapore, along with nearly 200 other countries, has committed to the Paris Climate Agreement and its goal of limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. Achieving the Paris Climate Goal is key to reducing the risks of long-lasting and potentially irreversible climate change impacts. According to scientists on the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we may have only three decades or less to drawdown our emissions to net zero, for us to achieve the Paris Climate Goal. And when it comes to tackling climate change, mitigation is, at least, as important as adaptation, because whereas climate change adaptation is like learning to live with the disease of climate change, mitigation is preventing or treating the disease itself, by tackling its root cause. In terms of climate change mitigation, Singapore can do our part by setting more ambitious science-based targets for three key outcomes. First, we urgently need to reduce our emissions from the use of fossil fuels, by transitioning to renewable sources of energy, increasing our energy efficiency and cutting down on waste. Second, we need to protect our remaining carbon rich forests and eco-systems and avoid further emissions from deforestation. And third, we need to start capturing and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
“Mr Speaker, first, allow me to declare my professional interest in this issue as a Professor and Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I stand in support of this Motion. Climate change is an issue of pressing concern in Singapore and around the world. In recent years, we have already experienced some of the impacts of climate change in Singapore, including rising temperatures and higher rainfall intensity, which can result in flash floods, causing much disruption to our daily lives. But what is perhaps even more worrying is that climate change can expose Singapore to potentially more serious and insidious consequences in the long run. For example, climate change can result in a higher frequency of extreme weather events that can affect global food production and supply which, in turn, can compromise Singapore's food security. By diversifying Singapore's food supply sources and by ramping up our local food production, we may reduce some, but not all, of these risks . And therefore, one of the reasons for tackling climate change is to ensure that Singaporeans can continue to have access to quality food, that you and I, can continue to enjoy our favourite plate of Tiong Bahru "chai tow kway" whenever we want to and at affordable prices. The climate change we are experiencing today is the result of rapidly increasing concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Globally, these emissions are caused by two main activities. The first is the use of fossil fuels to generate the energy that powers our society. The second is deforestation – the loss of our forests and natural eco-systems to agriculture, forestry, urbanisation and other land uses.”