Singapore has joined the bandwagon of countries committed to cut carbon emissions as part of the global effort of nations against climate change.The ambitious plan of the country involves halting further carbon emissions by 2030 and being a greener nation economically.
Singapore submitted their target plans to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Thursday, July 2, in preparation for the upcoming global talks to be held in Paris on December 2015. The said meeting aims to reach out to countries and establish commitments that can help to alleviate global warming and prevent its dangerous consequences in the future.
The targets that Singapore included in the plan include reducing Emissions Intensity from 0.176 kilogram per dollar in 2005 to 0.113 by the year 2030 and maintain emissions at 65 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) in 2030. At present, Singapore is committed towards their current goal with a target end-period of 2020 - to reduce emissions in accordance to their unconditional pledge, which is seven-11 percent below the levels usually emitted when businesses are fully operational.
The National Climate Change Secretariat (NCSS) will implement various interventions to engage different sectors to participate in their goal. The government is said to use a multi-pronged strategy to do this and measures will include recommending the use of bicycles or walking in the transportation industry, setting up incentives programs and boosting protocols among different sectors and providing support to installation of solar energy for infrastructures. Further strategies will be communicated by the different departments involved.
"For a very small country with limited alternative energy options, the stabilisation of our emissions with the aim of peaking around 2030 requires serious effort by everyone," says Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change. "We have to strive for higher levels of energy efficiency, including deployment of best-in-class technologies." At present, Singapore contributes about 2.2 percent in the global trade but is responsible for only 0.11 percent of emissions in the entire globe.
The UNFCCC aims to come up with an agreement among nations, which will most likely dictate the Earth's status after the year 2020. The main goal is to maintain global temperatures in such a way that it will not exhibit a rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius above the levels of the pre-industrial transformation.
Photo: Leonid Yaitskiy | Flickr
