Sir, when we refer to the circular economy in terms of our reduce, reuse, and recycle targets, our concern typically comes from when is the day that Pulau Semakau is no longer able to take anymore refuse.
But I would like to ask NCCS—coordinating the whole-of-government response – about the interaction between our circular economy outcomes, plans, and targets with our national climate change targets.
First, I understand that products not made in Singapore like agricultural imports, electronics imports, car imports, and so on, are not counted under our carbon budget and as such are not covered under our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Does the government have any mechanism to track this outsourced carbon? Is reducing these emissions covered under any government strategy like the Zero Waste Masterplan? From reading our NDC, it seems that the Government is working to calculate some degree of carbon abatement via recycling, but does this reflect that we track our outsourced carbon?
The built environment sector analyses and aims to reduce such carbon, in the embodied carbon calculations which are key to determining the “greenness” of a green building. Are other carbon intensive sectors like marine and manufacturing subject to such scrutiny? The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism broadly targets goods and precursors that are deemed to be carbon intensive and prone to carbon leakage. While I am not advocating for such a tariff, are we doing the analysis?
In view of this, I hope that we can fundamentally change our whole-of-government KPIs to shift the focus from GDP growth to development KPIs, which include the compatibility of our country with 1.5 degrees warming—in accordance with the Paris Agreement. If we are to use the term “green growth”, it must be warranted. Not only do we as a country need to reduce the resource footprint per unit of GDP, we need to continuously reduce our resource footprint altogether, and this includes not simply exporting pollution to other countries we trade with.
