Parliamentary reply by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on Ministries’ Climate Compliance

THIRTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE
WRITTEN ANSWER
TUESDAY, 3 MARCH 2020

Mr Louis Ng:

To ask the Prime Minister whether the Ministry will consider requiring all Ministries to produce a climate compliance certificate explaining how their budgets and operations will comply with Singapore’s climate commitments prior to budget approval.

Mr Teo Chee Hean (for the Prime Minister):

Meeting Singapore’s climate commitments requires a whole-of-nation effort. Under the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change (IMCCC), various government agencies are involved in implementing a series of sectoral mitigation measures to enable Singapore to meet our climate commitments. For example, BCA’s initiatives under the Green Building Masterplan will accelerate the proliferation of green buildings. This will help Singapore become an even more sustainable and highly liveable city.

The public sector itself is taking concrete steps to lead in the adoption of sustainable practices and initiatives. This is coordinated through the Public Sector Taking the Lead in Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) initiative, which was introduced in 2006 and updated in 2017. PSTLES serves as a platform to leverage the collective capabilities across the whole-of-government (WOG) to improve resource efficiency in the public sector and effect our commitment towards environmental sustainability.

Under PSTLES, the SolarNova Programme aggregates demand for solar deployment across public sector buildings and spaces, catalysing solar adoption in Singapore. For example, HDB’s target to deploy 540 MWp of solar on the rooftops of HDB blocks will make up a significant proportion of our national target to deploy at least 2 GWp of solar deployment by 2030.

Under the PSTLES initiative, the Government has set targets to reduce our electricity and water consumption, achieve green mark standards for our buildings, procure green electronics and paper products, and hold events and functions in venues with at least a Green Mark certified rating.

We intend to raise our ambition for the next phase of the PSTLES initiative. More details will be announced later this year.

Key efforts in environmental sustainability undertaken by government agencies are reported in the biennial publication – Singapore Public Sector Outcomes Review (SPOR). The publication takes stock of how Singapore has fared in addressing climate change, water and energy usage, and waste management, amongst other government programmes. In the light of these efforts, there is no need to require the Ministries to produce a climate compliance certificate.