SINGAPORE – On Feb 11, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary said Singapore
has to rebalance its priorities and put more weight on adapting to climate impacts
, as geopolitics has put a damper on efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
In my view, this focus on adaptation is timely for a city-state exposed to climate change impacts such as rising temperatures and sea levels.
His comments come at a time when global efforts to tackle the root cause of climate change – fossil fuel use – are coming under attack from political rhetoric and economic concerns, giving rise to fears that climate change impacts will escalate.
The earth has already warmed by around 1.3 deg C since pre-industrial times and locked-in global warming has been driving disasters from powerful cyclones to heatwaves.
Climate threats have been inching closer to Singapore in recent years. From temperatures soaring
to 37 deg C in May 2023
and some episodes of coastal flooding when heavy rain coincided with high tides, the Republic has experienced a taste of extreme weather.
Hazy conditions could also become a mainstay in Singapore in a world on fire. Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu told Parliament on Feb 12 that climate change
will bring about drier conditions
and higher temperatures that could fuel potential wildfires in the region, bringing haze to Singapore.
Both adaptation and mitigation, or cutting emissions, are equally important in the effort to tackle climate change.
If solutions to reduce emissions are the “antidote” for long-term global heating, then adaptation serves as a “vaccine” to protect people and places from harsher consequences of exposure to extreme heat, floods and food crises.
This is especially relevant for Singapore for a few reasons.
First, Singapore, being low-lying and exposed to tropical heat all year, is not sheltered from climate risks. This is something that the private sector is increasingly concerned with.
For example, if companies were to delay installing flood and coastal defences, insurers may impose high premiums, forcing business costs to go up in the long run.
In a recent study, insurance broker Willis Towers Watson found that losses linked to floods in South-east Asia
may grow by as much as 1,000 per cent
in the coming years.
