Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli in his ministry’s Committee of Supply debate said, “Only by living and practising sustainability together can we mitigate the impacts of climate change and secure the resources needed to take Singapore into the future.”

Here are some highlights of the plans MEWR has to address and mitigate the effects of climate change:

$24.8 million Climate-friendly Household Package

One to three-room HDB households stand to benefit from this package, to invest in energy and water efficient appliances. This package includes:

• One-off $150 voucher to invest in energy and efficient refrigerator models
• $50 voucher to offset the cost of changing their shower fittings to more water efficient three-tick models
• $25 voucher to buy LED lights which are 80 per cent more energy efficient

Coastal Protection studies to develop long-term strategies

Mr Masagos announced that the new national Coastal Protection Agency lead by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) will embark on coastal protection studies to develop long-term strategies and engineering designs for protecting the most vulnerable segment’s of Singapore’s coast.

The expansion of PUB’s role beyond stormwater management will allow for the agency to tackle inland and coastal flooding holistically.

Reducing Emissions

Singapore is the first country in Southeast Asia to implement carbon tax, and it will continue to implement more measures to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Under the new Commercial Vehicle Emissions Scheme for new light goods vehicles – which is also the largest proportion of proportion of commercial vehicles, the vision is for all vehicles to run on cleaner energy by 2040.

The Government will take the lead by ensuring vehicle purchases for its own fleet to be cleaner and greener. This will take place from 2023.

100% green waterworks

Singapore’s waterworks is set to be one of the few in the world to be 100 per cent green.

The completion of a large-scale floating solar panel system at Tengah Reservoir generates sufficient green energy to meet daily operation needs of Singapore’s five water treatment plants as well as Marina Barrage.

Photo from Minister Masagos Zulkifli’s Facebook