Climate action leaning towards more global collaboration over the years: SM Teo

(Photo credit: LIANHE ZAOBAO)

Source: The Straits Times

Despite the ebbs and flows across election cycles and administrations, the trend on climate action has leaned towards global collaboration and cooperation, and Singapore will continue to pursue partnerships on this front, said Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on May 6.

Singapore cannot be sure what other countries will or will not do, he said, but pointed to how climate change impacts were already being felt.

“Climate change will not wait for us to be ready. The longer we delay, the more abrupt and harder our transition will be,” he added.

“We will secure Singapore’s future by doing our part and collaborating with the world to reduce emissions,” said SM Teo in his keynote address at Ecosperity Week, a sustainability conference convened by Singapore’s investment company Temasek.

The Republic will also get its economy ready to grasp new opportunities in a low-carbon world, and prepare to protect its people from the effects of a warmer world, said SM Teo, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change.

His remarks come amid changes in the geopolitical climate that are causing sustainability and climate concerns to take a back seat.

For example, the US – one of the world’s largest emitters – had said in January that it will pull out of the Paris Agreement. Indonesia subsequently said it considers the global climate pact no longer relevant for the country.

The Paris Agreement is a pact which nearly 200 countries signed in 2015 to limit global warming to 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

“Under these circumstances, it is not surprising to hear calls for climate ambition to be rolled back or at least deferred,” said SM Teo.

Governments and businesses are under pressure to focus on immediate concerns, including preserving jobs and deepening reserves in anticipation of potential shocks, he added.

“But we must be clear-minded. Those of you who run organisations know that long-term success requires both a firm grasp on the demands of today, and a steady eye on the needs of tomorrow.”

SM Teo said that globally, the conversation has shifted from whether humans are responsible for climate change, to who should act and by how much.

In South-east Asia, a low-carbon future is possible if governments, businesses and investors can work more closely together, he said.

One way to do this is through the integrated Asean power grid, which can help to advance the regional energy transition.

The Asean power grid, which will allow countries in the region to trade electricity generated from renewable sources with one another, can cut reliance on fossil fuel and strengthen regional energy resilience.

In the works for more than a decade, the Asean grid has made headway over the past few years, with one of the latest developments being Singapore doubling its electricity import capacity from 100MW to 200MW via the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore power integration project. 

With continued investment and cross-border cooperation, the grid could lift gross domestic product by up to 4.6 per cent and create thousands of green jobs, SM Teo said.

“South-east Asia has immense renewable potential – solar, wind, hydro and geothermal, these are abundant. Yet the uptake remains limited, because poor grid connectivity prevents clean energy from reaching where it is needed most,” he said, highlighting the importance of developing transmission infrastructure.

Later, during a dialogue with Temasek chief executive Dilhan Pillay, SM Teo said that every Asean country has its own interests, but there are opportunities to work together, given global “perturbation and turbulence”.

SM Teo also stressed the importance of plugging the funding gap.

“If renewables are going to power our green future, then financing will be needed to power the transition to that future,” he said. “Without sufficient funding, the drive to decarbonise will sputter.”

He noted that South-east Asia faces a significant financing gap for green investments, estimated at over US$210 billion (S$270 billion) a year until 2030.

With many governments in the region facing budget constraints and the private sector wary about the risks and returns of green investments, innovative financial solutions like blended finance can be tapped to boost public-private partnerships, he said.

Blended finance refers to using public and philanthropic funding support to make it easier for private funding to come on board.

Singapore is doing its part to facilitate such collaborations, SM Teo added, pointing to the Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership launched in 2023 to raise up to US$5 billion to address the financing gap in green projects in Asia.

“We hope this spurs businesses, investors and governments to go further to crowd in capital from within the region, and direct it towards credible green projects,” he said.

The carbon markets can also be further developed to unlock the region’s potential, he added.

Carbon markets are a key enabler of international climate cooperation, as they allow countries to buy carbon credits generated elsewhere to meet their climate targets. This means nations need not rely solely on domestic efforts to cut emissions.

Carbon credits can come from technological solutions, such as carbon capture, or from nature-based projects.

Nature-based credits could come from projects such as forest restoration and conservation, as well as sustainable agriculture, and can provide a financial incentive to keep natural ecosystems intact.

SM Teo noted that South-east Asia is home to some of the world’s richest ecosystems – 15 per cent of the world’s tropical forests, more than a fifth of the world’s mangroves and 23 million ha of peatlands.

During the dialogue, Mr Dilhan stressed the importance of integrity and credibility of carbon credits, as well as the need for firms to expand beyond Asia.

“We should make sure that the best we have to offer in Asia can find their way even beyond the shores of Asia, wherever you can get the best value possible,” he said.

“South-east Asia has a lot of promise... If we prosper as a region, more and more people will want to come and trade with us and invest in us. It’s for us to take ownership of this opportunity to take it forward,” he added.