Create a new category of Certificate of Entitlement (COE) for green vehicles. Eat less meat. Make climate change issues part of the school curriculum.
These are some of the 1,000 suggestions the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) received from the public and industry players between September and last month, as part of its efforts to engage Singaporeans on climate change-related issues.
Releasing the suggestions yesterday, the NCCS said relevant government agencies will assess the ideas.
“Some were new ideas and they are being studied to see if they can be effectively adopted in Singapore. Others were workable solutions that have already been implemented, which need to be publicised more so that members of the public are aware of these efforts,” said the NCCS.
Some suggestions were considered but found to be unsuitable for adoption at this stage, it said.
For instance, having COEs for green vehicles would “introduce more complexity” to the vehicle quota system, which was the case when the COE system first started, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
In its early years, the COE system had more categories than it has today. “The small quota of each category resulted in price anomalies and distortions within the categories,” said the LTA.
As for eating less meat - because meat production contributes some 14 to 22 per cent of global emission - the NCCS pointed out that the carbon footprint of the food the Republic consumes is not straightforward. Production and transport processes, for instance, often take place outside Singapore and cannot be easily verified.
Meanwhile, the Government is working to incorporate aspects of climate change into the school curriculum, where topics such as global warming and ozone depletion are taught in geography and science.
Between October and December, the NCCS, for the first time, also surveyed 1,010 Singaporean residents, aged 15 and above, to gauge levels of public awareness and attitudes towards climate change-related issues here.
It found seven in 10 believed it was everyone’s responsibility to care for the environment. Three in four saw the need to preserve the environment for future generations, and nearly six in 10 said steps to reduce climate change should be taken even if it involved significant cost.
Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of the inter-ministerial committee on climate change Teo Chee Hean said he was “heartened” to see the “strong support” for climate change action. He pointed to the 86 per cent of respondents who felt they had a part to play in taking action on climate change.
However, Green Drinks Singapore founder Olivia Choong, 33, told Today that she was “surprised” by the findings. “Based on my interactions with people I talk to, whether taxi drivers or my banker friends, a lot more education needs to get out there. For instance, how many know that the rare earths that go into your smartphones and tablets are polluting the environment, or that smartphones are such power-hungry devices,” said Ms Choong. “I’m not sure how much of it will translate into action,” she added.
The list of suggestions and agency responses can be found on the NCCS website.
