Singapore government has cutting down the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to fight against the global warming by improve the energy efficient usage and raise the awareness.

  The global warming issue was getting serious nowadays, which caused the glaciers in the North and South Pole were melting and the sea levels were rising. All of these global warming effects were mostly caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) that emitted by 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. According to National Geographic, the rising of the temperature of the world is greatly depending on us and the best solution to prevent this issue getting serious is to stabilize the concentration of GHGs. As a result, Green Movement was become globalization around the world and Singapore government has supporting it to fight against the global warming by cutting down the emission of GHGs from industry, building and transportations.

  Singapore government has been focused on cutting down the emission of GHGs from the transportations throughout the years. According to a data from National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS), there are about 19% of CO₂ emissions were contributed from transport in year 2005. In order to reduce the emission of CO₂, LTA was improving the energy efficiency of transport sector through varies solutions. 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. Besides that, Singapore government also encourages people to buy green vehicles with the promotion of Green Vehicle Rebate (GVR) since 2001. Through these solutions, the Singapore government is expected 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 to attract more people to take public transport. For example, MOE can release the students from school at 5PM so that can reduce the overcrowded situation during peak hours. 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, 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 with different rating from Gold to Platinum award in 2005 to raise the awareness of sustainability as well as encourage the construction industry build 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, according to the Building Regulations that settled up by BCA; started from April 2008, every new constructed building has to meet the minimum requirements on Green Mark standards. Though these solutions, the Singapore government is expected to cut down the CO₂ emission from 16% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2020. From my opinion, the government should also provide some cash incentive as a motivation for the designers to produce some creative ideas.

  In conclusion, the global warming issue is getting more serious and many governments from different countries are started working hard to reduce carbon emission from their own country and this included Singapore government. Throughout the years, Singapore government had work out many solutions 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 response the call from Singapore government.

 

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