Ravi Chandran
Singapore Green Plan 2030 Charts Ambitious Targets for Next 10 Years to Catalyse National Sustainability Movement
The Government on 10 February unveiled the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a whole-of-nation movement to advance Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development. The Green Plan charts ambitious and concrete targets over the next 10 years, strengthening Singapore’s commitments under the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and Paris Agreement, and positioning us to achieve our long-term net-zero emissions aspiration as soon as viable.
On 31 March 2020, Singapore submitted our enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LEDS) document to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Under Singapore’s enhanced NDC, we target to peak emissions at 65MtCO2e around 2030. Our LEDS builds on our enhanced NDC target. We aspire to halve our emissions from its peak to 33MtCO2e by 2050, with a view to achieving net zero emissions as soon as viable in the second half of the century.
Spearheaded by five ministries – the Ministries of Education, National Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Trade and Industry, and Transport – and supported by the whole of Government, the Green Plan builds on the sustainability efforts of preceding decades. The comprehensive plan will strengthen Singapore’s economic, climate and resource resilience, improve the living environment of Singaporeans, and bring new business and job opportunities.
The Green Plan will influence all aspects of our lives, from how we live to how we work, and play, as we work together as a nation to make Singapore a greener and more liveable home.
Comprehensive Plan with Five Key Pillars
The Green Plan has five key pillars:
- City in Nature: to create a green, liveable and sustainable home for Singaporeans;
- Sustainable Living: to make reducing carbon emissions, keeping our environment clean, and saving resources and energy a way of life in Singapore;
- Energy Reset: to use cleaner energy and increase our energy efficiency to lower our carbon footprint;
- Green Economy: to seek green growth opportunities to create new jobs, transform our industries, and harness sustainability as a competitive advantage; and
- Resilient Future: to build up Singapore’s climate resilience and enhance our food security
Realising these sustainability goals will require a multi-stakeholder whole-of-nation effort. This will be enabled by a Green Government, with the public sector leading in environmental sustainability; and Green Citizenry, where individuals, communities and businesses play their part.
The Green Plan will strengthen existing national sustainability efforts and mitigation measures with several new initiatives and targets. These include:
- A new Enterprise Sustainability Programme to help Singapore enterprises to develop capabilities in sustainability;
- Requiring all new car registrations to be cleaner-energy models from 2030, and more than doubling the targeted number of electric vehicles (EVs) charging points by 2030, from 28,000 to 60,000;
- Raising the sustainability standards of our buildings through the next edition of the Singapore Green Building Masterplan;
- Building on our 2030 aim to reduce the waste sent to our landfill by 30%, we will work on achieving a 20% reduction by 2026;
- Working towards a two-thirds reduction of net carbon emissions from the schools sector by 2030, and aiming for at least 20% of our schools to be carbon neutral by 2030 for a start, with the rest of the schools to follow thereafter.
The Green Plan will be supported by the Eco Stewardship Programme in schools, to strengthen the inculcation of informed, responsible and sustainability-conscious mindset and habits in our young.
Building a City of Green Possibilities, in Partnership with Singaporeans
The Green Plan is a living plan, which will evolve as we develop and refine our strategies, taking into account technological developments, and as part of a continuous national engagement process. The Green Plan has incorporated comments by participants in the recent Emerging Stronger Conversations. A key priority of the Green Plan is mobilising and empowering the Public, Private and People sectors to co-create solutions for sustainability. In the spirit of Singapore Together, we will work together with Singaporeans and our partners to co-create solutions and realise the Green Plan.
The Ministries will actively involve the public and other partners to further develop ideas and undertake relevant initiatives, as part of this national engagement process. For a start, we will embark on a series of Green Plan Conversations this year, hosted by the Ministers overseeing the Green Plan, to seek the views of Singaporeans and to explore potential partnerships. Other engagements will also be planned through the year. Ideas generated from these engagements can be taken up through existing or new collaborative platforms, such as the Alliances for Action. The $50 million SG Eco Fund will also support community-led projects that advance environmental sustainability in Singapore. The Government released more details on the Green Plan at Budget 2021.
Launch of Green Plan Video and Website
To mark the launch of the Green Plan, a video featuring the Ministers for Education, National Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Trade and Industry, and Transport has been released today, which outlines our sustainability vision.
Mr Paul Ho, Chief Officer at iCompareLoan, said: “Climate change is a global challenge, and Singapore is taking firm actions to do our part to build a sustainable future.”
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He added, “The Green Plan charts ambitious and concrete targets over the next 10 years, strengthening Singapore’s commitments under the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and Paris Agreement, and positioning us to achieve our long-term net zero emissions aspiration as soon as viable.”
Everyone can play a part in making the Green Plan a reality. Let’s build a greener and move liveable home together.
