Essay Draft 2: Singapore government is cutting down the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to fight against the global warming by set up some policies to reduce carbon emission from transportation and building sectors.

  In Goldin’s TED talk, he mentions about the climate change is one of the factors that resulted from rapid globalization. Climate change is the result of global warming that caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) where emitted from the human activities that used to build the modern lives of today. Majority of these GHGs were emitted from the buildings around us, fossil fuels in transportations, industries and electricity generator and these GHGs have the abilities to trap the heat around the atmosphere which induced the glaciers in the North and South Poles are melting and sea levels are rising. As Singapore is a small and low-lying island that surrounded by the sea, the rise in sea level will have major effects on Singapore. According to National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) (2012), there was average increased 3mm of the sea level per year over the past 15years. Thus, Singapore government is cutting down the emission of GHGs to against the global warming by set up some policies to reduce carbon emission from transportation and building sectors.

  Singapore government has been focused on cutting down the emission of GHGs from the transportations throughout the years. According to the data of Singapore’s GHGs Emissions from NCCS (n.d.), there are about 19% of CO₂ emissions were contributed from transport in year 2005. In order to reduce the emission of CO₂, LTA had set up some policies to encourage people to take public transport. First of all, LTA managing the vehicle usage and traffic congestion by implemented the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to discouraged people to purchase a car. Next, LTA also continue improve and promote the public transport in order to make the public transport be the first choice of mode of transport for every people. Through these solutions, LTA had reduced the CO₂ emission from the fossil fuels in transportation in an indirect way and the NCCS is expecting to reduce the CO₂ to 14.5% in 2020. Although the Singapore government managed to reduce the CO₂ by providing an efficient transport system, but there are still a number of people refused to use the public transport due to overcrowded of the MRT during peak hours. In my opinion, LTA can try to shorter the current waiting time of the train from about average 2miniutes to 30 seconds to increase the frequency of the train during peak hours. On the other hands, LTA can also collaborate with MOM and MOE to reduce the crowd of peak hours by rearrange the school and work release time to spread the peak hours more evenly.  In short, Singapore government was made public transport as one of the mode of transport for every Singaporean to reduce the CO₂ emission by the fossil fuels in transportations.

  Other than focused on cutting down the emission of GHGs from transportations, Singapore government also focused on reduce the emission of GHGs from buildings. Based on the data from NCCS (n.d.), the building sector was emitted about 16% of CO₂ in 2005. To reduce GHGs emit from the building, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) implemented the BCA Green Mark Scheme in 2005 to raise the awareness of sustainability as well as encourage the developers to develop more environmental-friendly buildings in Singapore. The Ministry of National Development (MND) provided 20 million dollars for this Green Mark, while BCA also provided some new grants to attract the developers build or upgrade more green buildings. Other than the incentive, the National Environment Agency (NEA) launched the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme encourage the private sectors maximize the energy efficiency to reduce the carbon emissions. With these policies, the NCCS is expecting to cut down the CO₂ emission from 16% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2020. Through these effective policies, I agreed with the expectation of NCCS that the Singapore government could achieve their goal by 2020, but from my point of view, the government could improve their policies by provide extra cash incentive as a motivation for the designers to produce new creative ideas in their designs.  

  In conclusion, the global warming issue is getting more serious and it will have major effects on Singapore. Throughout the years, Singapore government had set up many policies to reduce the carbon emission from the transportation and building sectors. Thus, this is the time for every people to working with the government to protect our environment by takes a few small steps toward energy conservation and we could have an immeasurable effect!

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Reference:

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Causes of Global Warming. Retrieved March 1, 2014, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_intl_se_w#

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Global Warming Solutions, Retrieved March 1, 2014,  http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-solutions

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Projecting Singapore’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/projecting-singapores-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Impact of Climate Change on Singapore, Retrieved March 8, 2014, https://app.nccs.gov.sg/(S(bumm2x45rx4wgv550lqpk255))/page.aspx?pageid=160&secid=157

Building and Construction Authority (n.d.), Code on Environmental Sustainability Measures for Existing Buildings 1^st Edition. Retrieved March 8, 2014, http://www.bca.gov.sg/EnvSusLegislation/others/Code_Env_Sus_Measures_Exit_Building.pdf

National Climate Change Secretariat (n.d.), Singapore’s National Climate Change Strategy_Chapter 3: Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emission, Retrieved March 8, 2014, http://app.mewr.gov.sg/data/ImgUpd/NCCS_Chapter_3_-_Mitigation.pdf

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Sectoral Measures to Reduce Emission (Up to 2020). Retrieved March 8, 2014, http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/sectoral-measures-to-reduce-emissions-up-to-2020.html

Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future?language=en