SINGAPORE (Mar 1): Singapore enhanced its pledge to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases it emits, saying it now aims to halve emissions from an expected peak in 2030 within the following two decades.
The Southeast Asian city-state expects the emissions ceiling to be 65 million tons of carbon dioxide around 2030, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said in Parliament on Friday. That will fall to 33 million tons by 2050, he said, adding that the government also aims to achieve net-zero emissions as soon as viable in the second half of the century.
The targets are an enhancement to the ones set in 2015 when Singapore set to reduce its emissions intensity in 2030 by 36% from 2005 levels, and to peak by around 2030, according to Teo. The enhanced plan will be submitted to the Paris Agreement later this year, he said.
Singapore will accelerate its deployment of solar energy, as well as work with the industrial sector, which is the largest contributor to carbon emissions, he said. The country will also move toward enhancing the overall carbon efficiency in urban transport through the large-scale adoption of green vehicles, along with a plan to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2040.
The country is including the seventh greenhouse gas known as nitrogen trifluoride in its pledge within the same emissions ceiling, according to Teo, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security.
