Speech by MOS Tan Kiat How at the 3rd Annual RHT RMF Gail Sustainability Forum

Jun 25, 2021

A very good morning to all of you. I am happy to join you today at the RHT Rajan Menon Foundation’s Greening ASEAN: Initiatives & Leadership (GAIL) Sustainability Forum. 

This is a good platform that brings together leaders from across the public, private, and people sectors, to discuss and inspire action on sustainability issues. 

Promoting sustainability is especially urgent today, in the face of climate change. Earlier this year, we declared in Parliament that climate change is a global emergency and a threat to mankind. 

Tackling climate change calls for collective action across all sectors of the economy. We must work together to reduce our carbon emissions, and adapt to the effects of climate change. 

RHT has been actively involved in inspiring such collective action, including by organising today’s GAIL Sustainability Forum. The RHT Group also offers consulting services to help other companies become more sustainable. And I understand that today, RHT is announcing a new commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. 

Let me take this opportunity to thank RHT for actively contributing to our sustainability efforts. 

Around the world, countries, cities, companies, investors, NGOs and individuals are stepping up to take stronger action. Singapore, too, will do our part. 

At the same time, we want to seize the growth opportunities of the green economy. 

As a small, densely-populated city-state with a strong history in sustainable development, we can be a living laboratory and a hub for urban sustainability solutions. 

We can also leverage our position as an Asian finance hub, to serve as a carbon trading and services hub for our region. 

By doing so, we can make a positive environmental impact beyond our own geographic borders, and punch above our weight. 

Let me now share what Singapore is doing in support of climate action. 

Singapore Green Plan 2030

In February this year, we launched the Singapore Green Plan 2030,. This is a national movement to chart our course for sustainable development over the next decade. We are putting in place concrete programmes to achieve sustainability targets across a wide range of sectors. 

These efforts will position us to achieve net-zero emissions as soon as viable. 

While the Green Plan focuses on delivering immediate to medium-term actions, it is also a living plan that will evolve in the long-term. Over time, as key technologies mature, our targets and aspirations will become more ambitious. 

The Green Plan’s initiatives will ultimately change how we live, work, play, and commute. To drive change across our sectors, we want to partner the private sector and community to co-create new sustainability solutions. Together, all of us can be responsible stewards of our environment, for future generations. 

To achieve this vision, the Green Plan comprises five key pillars: 

First, City in Nature – to create a green, liveable and sustainable home for Singaporeans. We are extending and enhancing our natural capital island-wide. For example, we are weaving nature into our urban environment more intensively and we are strengthening the ecological connectivity between our green spaces. 

Second, Sustainable Living – to make reducing carbon emissions, keeping our environment clean, and saving resources and energy a way of life for all of us. We can all actively reduce, reuse, and recycle. And we can choose greener commuting options such as walking, cycling, and taking public transport. 

Third, Energy Reset – to use cleaner energy and increase energy efficiency to lower our carbon footprint. 

Fourth, Green Economy – to create new green jobs, and transform our industries to be more sustainable. This will not only support a sustainable Singapore, but can also facilitate Asia’s transition to a sustainable future. 

And Fifth, Resilient Future – to build up Singapore’s climate resilience, safeguard our coasts against rising sea levels, mitigate urban heat, and enhance our food security. 

Let me now share a little more on some of our specific plans to make our buildings, HDB towns, and districts more sustainable, as part of the Energy Reset pillar of the Green Plan. These will not only make our urban infrastructure more environmentally friendly, but can also reduce costs from energy consumption. They will also open up new opportunities for our companies and workers in the urban sustainability sector. 

Green Buildings

Today, buildings account for over 20% of our emissions. Hence, the Built Environment sector has an important role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change. We are making a strong push to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings and use cleaner energy to power our city. 

In March, we launched the 4th edition of the Singapore Green Building Masterplan, to accelerate our transition to a sustainable, low-carbon Built Environment and tap on new growth opportunities from the demand for green buildings.  

We have three targets under the Masterplan, called “80-80-80 in 2030”. 

First, we will green 80% of our buildings by Gross Floor Area by 2030. 

Second, we aim for 80% of new buildings to be Super Low Energy buildings from 2030. These Super Low Energy buildings will achieve at least 60% improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2005 levels. 

Third, we will ramp up research and innovation, so that our best-in-class green buildings will see an 80% improvement in energy efficiency over the 2005 baseline by 2030. 

These are ambitious targets, and we look forward to working closely with our industry partners and the community to achieve them. 

Sustainable Towns and Districts

Beyond individual buildings, we also want to make our towns and districts more sustainable. 

Our new HDB towns will be greener and more sustainable. For example, Tengah town will have centralised cooling systems. The town’s design also incorporates technology to improve ventilation and reduce heat gain. 

In existing HDB towns, we are implementing the HDB Green Towns Programme, to help reduce our existing towns’ energy consumption by 15% by 2030. For example, we are using smart LED lights to reduce energy use, doubling our solar capacity on HDB rooftops, and trialling cool paints that can reduce the heat absorbed by buildings. 

We will also develop sustainable districts. One example is Jurong Lake District, which we will develop as a model sustainable mixed-use district. 

We envision it to be a model for how innovative solutions and technology can enable a more liveable, sustainable, and healthier urban environment. 

For example, we are exploring the introduction of district-level systems such as district-cooling systems, pneumatic waste collection systems, and consolidated logistics. These will provide urban services that are cleaner, use less resources, and require fewer workers. 

These plans will also present growth opportunities for Singapore’s urban solutions companies, which can use the District as a test-bed for such innovations. 

Research and Innovation

Indeed, research and innovation are an important part of our long-term strategy to make Singapore more sustainable. To support this, we have various research and development programmes that focus on urban sustainability challenges. 

One key programme is our Cities of Tomorrow R&D programme, which we launched in 2017. The programme has supported research into a variety of sustainability solutions so far. And moving forward, it will place a greater emphasis on supporting sustainability efforts. 

For example, we are supporting research to maintain our urban greenery more efficiently, and to explore urban designs to create natural breezes that cool the environment. 

Partnering the Community

While the Government is taking significant steps as part of the Green Plan, our efforts alone will not be enough. I invite all of you to join us in this movement. Those of us here from the private sector can seize green growth opportunities, to do well while doing good. Make your organisations’ operations more environmentally-friendly, and work with us to develop new solutions that push the boundaries of sustainability through research and innovation. 

We also want to involve Singaporeans and our civil society in our sustainability efforts. That is why we launched the $50 million SG Eco Fund last year, to support ground-up sustainability projects that involve the community. We recently awarded funding to 37 projects under the Fund’s first grant call. We look forward to working with more applicants from across the people, public, and private sectors, to support their projects under future grant calls! 

And finally, we welcome you to contribute your ideas on how we can make Singapore more sustainable. If you’re interested to find out more, to share your ideas, and to partner us in our efforts in pushing for greater sustainability action, I encourage you to do so through our Green Plan website, greenplan.gov.sg. 

Together, we can turn our climate action vision into a reality. Thank you very much.