Singapore holds to pledge on emissions

Straits Times 20 Dec 09;

Singapore will start making good its pledge to bring down its level of carbon emission growth, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

But whether it reaches the full target of 16 per cent below the 'business as usual' (BAU) level by 2020 will depend on one thing: a legally binding global deal to fight climate change.

The world is at least one or two years away from such an agreement, following inconclusive talks over the past 13 days.

To reach the 16 per cent target, Singapore will be studying and possibly introducing measures such as mandating energy efficiency standards for buildings and air-conditioning, emission trading schemes and carbon taxes, he said.

Some of these measures had already been planned under a sustainable development blueprint released early this year. The blueprint aims for a reduction in emission growth of 7 to 11 per cent below BAU.

As for the new schemes, 'whether we do them, when we do them, how we phase them in' all depend on the final outcome of the talks.

The 16 per cent target was announced earlier this month ahead of the Copenhagen talks. It is voluntary and domestically funded, but also conditional, he reiterated.

'It's conditional, of course, on the (legally binding) agreement being reached and other countries also putting their parts in and all of it adding together. But our offer stands.

'Whether or not there's an agreement, we'll start to (make cuts) because we have a sustainable development blueprint.

'That contains certain measures which we need to do anyway, because we need to emphasise energy conservation and planning for the long term and contingencies.'

Going ahead into future international climate negotiations, Singapore would just have to make sure that these voluntary emission curbs would be credited to it and not discounted, he said.

Clarissa Oon