Speech by MOS Faishal Ibrahim at the Charles Rudd Distinguished Global Lectures 2025

Feb 11, 2025

A very good morning to each and every one of you. I am happy to be able to join you today at the Charles Rudd Distinguished Global Lectures.

I would like to begin by thanking engineers past and present for their pivotal role in shaping the spaces that we live and work in, the roads that we travel on, and the infrastructure that keeps our cities thriving. So please join me in thanking all our engineers, whether in Singapore or across the world, for all their contributions.

Towards a Sustainable World: Engineering the Way Forward

Singapore has just submitted our 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) at the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change yesterday (10 Feb 2025). The NDC highlights Singapore’s commitment to climate action.

In our 2035 NDC, we have committed to reducing our emissions to between 45 to 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035. Given that we are an alternative energy disadvantaged nation, this is an ambitious goal. However, we are confident that we can achieve this with the collective effort of our various stakeholders domestically and internationally, especially with the contributions of our engineers. Engineers will play an important role in this transition, designing innovative solutions to decarbonise our economy, enhance energy efficiency, and drive sustainable urban development.

It is therefore very apt that the theme of this year’s lectures is “Towards A Sustainable World: Engineering the Way Forward”.

Achieving our targets will require expertise and innovation from our engineering community. Solutions such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage, new green building materials, centralised cooling systems are all testament to the power of engineering ingenuity. We must continue to drive innovation in these areas, so that Singapore can punch above our weight and contribute to thought leadership on the sustainability front.

As global citizens, we are committed to fulfilling our roles, to strive and make Singapore and the world a better and more sustainable place for all to live in.

Circular Economy and Resilient Future

This year’s lecture touches on two key concepts – Circular Economy and Resilient Future.

Circular economy aims at eliminating waste and promoting continual use of resources. This is not a new concept. In fact, we have been actively integrating circular economy principles into our built environment to enhance sustainability and resource efficiency. For instance, we have also been recycling our construction materials, reusing demolition waste, and investing in sustainable and energy-efficient building systems.

There are growing efforts to support Circular Economy in the Built Environment sector. Examples of these efforts include sourcing for more sustainable materials for construction and tapping on more environmentally friendly technologies.

This is a good sign that our awareness and understanding of the need to be more sustainable has increased. However, more can be done. In the face of growing uncertainties brought about by climate change, building a resilient future has never been more critical.

Sustainability Efforts by Government

For Singapore’s Buildings sector, we have committed ourselves since 2021 to achieving the 80-80-80 in 2030 targets: first, to establish 80% green buildings by 2030; second, to have 80% of new developments to be Super-Low Energy from 2030; and third, to achieve 80% improvement in energy efficiency for best-in-class green buildings by 2030.

BCA has also been introducing and enhancing measures to support the industry to achieve these targets. This includes raising environmental sustainability standards for the sector, as well as encouraging the adoption of more stringent Super Low Energy standards through the GreenGov.SG movement and the Government Land Sales scheme.

This year, we will implement the Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) regime. Under the new MEI regime, owners of energy-intensive buildings will be required to conduct energy audits and develop plans to address their high energy consumption. This will allow us to optimise energy use in existing infrastructure and contribute to our ongoing efforts to encourage sustainable development.

Engineers’ Role in Sustainability Efforts

Engineers like you are the driving force behind these sustainability efforts. The Government will continue to find ways to recognise our Engineers, and to ensure that you are well-equipped with skills for the future.

A Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants, led by Ms Indranee Rajah, Second Minister for National Development, and Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong, was set up last year to ensure that Singapore continues to have a capable and talented pipeline of Built Environment professionals and firms to deliver on Singapore’s development plans.

We have made good progress through frank discussions with various stakeholders in the Built Environment sector, including consultants, professional boards, TACs, developers, IHLs, young professionals and public agencies. We will provide an update and share more about the upcoming initiatives in the upcoming Committee of Supply debates.

In conclusion, the participation of engineers in this sustainability journey is crucial in achieving our goals and making Singapore a sustainable place to live in. I think it is important that we continue the journey together. We have set up the frameworks, we understand the concerns that you have, and we want to make sure with the new opportunities and challenges ahead, we are partners in this journey.

We look forward to continued partnership with all stakeholders, including engineers like you, as we push ourselves to innovate further to build the sustainable and resilient Singapore we envisage. Thank you for inviting me, and I am humbled to be able to join you. I wish you a good day ahead. Thank you.