The Singapore Government has unveiled the ‘Singapore Green Plan 2030’, a whole-of-nation movement to advance Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development.
The Green Plan outlines targets over the next 10 years, highlighting Singapore’s commitments under the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and Paris Agreement, and positioning the country to achieve long-term net-zero emissions as soon as possible.
The initiative is spearheaded by five ministries – the Ministries of Education, National Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Trade and Industry, and Transport. The plan aims to strengthen Singapore’s economic, climate and resource resilience, improve the living environment of Singaporeans, and bring new business and job opportunities.
The Green Plan has five key pillars:
City in Nature: to create a green, liveable and sustainable home for Singaporeans
Sustainable Living: to make reducing carbon emissions, keeping our environment clean, and saving resources and energy a way of life in Singapore
Energy Reset: to use cleaner energy and increase our energy efficiency to lower our carbon footprint;
Green Economy: to seek green growth opportunities to create new jobs, transform our industries, and harness sustainability as a competitive advantage
Resilient Future: to build up Singapore’s climate resilience and enhance our food
security
The Green Plan will strengthen existing national sustainability efforts and mitigation measures with several new initiatives and targets. These include:
- A new Enterprise Sustainability Programme to help Singapore enterprises to develop capabilities in sustainability
- Requiring all new car registrations to be cleaner-energy models from 2030, and more than doubling the targeted number of electric vehicles (EVs) charging points by 2030, from 28,000 to 60,000
- Raising the sustainability standards of buildings through the next edition of the Singapore Green Building Masterplan
- Building on the 2030 aim to reduce the waste sent to landfill by 30%, and work on achieving a 20% reduction by 2026
- Working towards a two-thirds reduction of net carbon emissions from the schools sector by 2030, and aiming for at least 20% of schools to be carbon neutral by 2030 for a start, with the rest of the schools to follow thereafter
The Green Plan will be supported by the Eco Stewardship Programme in schools, to strengthen the inculcation of informed, responsible and sustainability-conscious mindset and habits in our young.
The government has said “The Green Plan is a living plan, which will evolve as we develop and refine our strategies, taking into account technological developments, and as part of a continuous national engagement process. The Green Plan has incorporated comments by participants in the recent Emerging Stronger Conversations. A key priority of the Green Plan is mobilising and empowering the Public, Private and People sectors to co-create solutions for sustainability. In the spirit of Singapore Together, we will work together with Singaporeans and our partnersto co-create solutions and realise the Green Plan.”
