Peoples’ Action Party (PAP) Members of Parliament (MP), Louis Ng (Ng), Poh Li San, Cheryl Chan, Gan Thiam Poh, Hany Soh (Soh) and Don Wee (who are all members of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Sustainability and the Environment) have jointly filed a Parliamentary motion in relation to taking more action to mitigate and the impact of climate change.
This private members’ motion has been filed for the upcoming Feb 1, Parliamentary sitting and “calls on the Government, in partnership with the private sector and the people of Singapore, to deepen and accelerate efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to embrace sustainability in the development of Singapore.”
Soh, who is a PAP MP for Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representative Constituency (GRC) has informed the media that the motion can be summed up with the acronym “ABC” which stands for the following:
- “A” for accelerating efforts in tackling climate change as people are already feeling the impact in their daily lives.
- “B” for bolder movements and initiatives.
- “C” for collaboration among the public sector, private sector, and the people.
This motion will proffer recommendations put forth by the PAP’s youth wing (YP) in its position paper on sustainability issues.
PAP MP for Nee Soon GRC, Ng said the 10 proposals mooted by the PAP’s YP resonate with both environmental activists and businesses.
PAP YP’s sustainability representative, Cynthia Mark (Mark), added that the team has formulated the proposals after several focus group discussions over the past year. Mark stressed that the YP recognised the need to find a constructive balance between climate anxiety and business concerns.
Among other things, the 10 recommendations will focus on mitigating carbon emission in Singapore, increasing public awareness on climate change and data sharing.
A summary of the recommendations are as follows:
- To raise carbon tax post-Covid at an appropriate time and review the tax every five years.
- To professionalise the carbon accounting and reporting industry by setting accounting standards, providing certification and training local talents.
- To incorporate sustainability into the Industry Transformation Map scheme and create a Sustainability sector under this scheme.
- To set higher and expanded standards on procurement in the public sector.
- To support the adoption of electric vehicles by incentivising private developers to make charging points accessible and available at their buildings.
- To increase the Green Mark standards on carbon efficiency.
- To expand climate education in the school curriculum and increase the amount of resources given to experiential activities related to climate change.
- To add Climate Defence into Total Defence pillars to update national priorities.
- To introduce mechanisms to help key industrial sectors share technical data on energy efficiency and clean energy.
- To increase public access to emission data of top-emitting private companies and public entities so as to enforce accountability on organisations and empower the public to make decisions on what companies to support.
On top of these, Christopher de Souza will separately speak about Dover forest in an adjournment motion.