Governments, businesses need to work together to tackle climate change: Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE: Even as Singapore continues to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, it additionally wants to plan for a post-pandemic future the place climate change might be a significant problem, stated Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Thursday (Dec 9).“(Climate change) is an existential crisis for the entire world and even more so for Singapore because we are a low-lying city-state,” he stated.While governments can construct a robust basis for sustainability efforts of their respective nations, this alone is not going to "move the needle" until there's robust cooperation from businesses, he added in a speech delivered at the beginning of the Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards Ceremony."It is crucial that governments and businesses work together to speed up the transition to a more sustainable future," stated Mr Wong.In Singapore, the Government will set the "overall framework" to decarbonise the financial system, Mr Wong stated.One is thru laws and insurance policies to scale back the quantity of carbon emissions. Singapore will begin with a "right carbon price", which is critical to internalise the price of carbon and produce a couple of discount in carbon footprint.Singapore's revised carbon tax fee for 2024 might be introduced in subsequent yr's Budget, Mr Wong has beforehand stated.Another "big lever" that the Government can use is stricter requirements, such because the nation’s plans to section out inner combustion engine autos and have all autos operating on cleaner vitality by 2040.The Government can be dedicated to supporting businesses in making the shift in direction of more sustainable practices, with programmes and schemes already out there to assist ease the transition, stated Mr Wong.For instance, the brand new Enterprise Sustainability Programme will assist Singapore businesses on sustainability initiatives and seize alternatives within the inexperienced financial system. More than 6,000 companies are anticipated to profit from this new programme over the subsequent 4 years.Other efforts embody creating a strong financing ecosystem to assist the inexperienced transition, and a marketplace for voluntary carbon credit.On the latter, Mr Wong stated some corporations might face difficulties in eliminating emissions fully or rapidly, and one means to offset their residual emissions is thru the acquisition of carbon credit. Carbon credit also can assist to channel non-public financing in direction of climate-related tasks that will in any other case not take off.The Government is working to develop the carbon credit score market in Singapore and place Singapore as a hub for carbon administration providers, he added."In many ways, we believe we are well-positioned to serve as a carbon services and trading hub for Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific, given our foundation as a regional centre for professional services, commodity trading and financial services," Mr Wong stated.He added that Singapore is already residence to greater than 70 carbon providers and buying and selling companies that use Singapore as a base to serve the area and have interaction in carbon market actions."We will continue to support these companies and more that are interested to be a part of our carbon services and trading ecosystem," stated the minister.