Draft of Singapore's carbon pricing bill released for public consultation

THE government is conducting a second round of public consultation on the carbon tax as it releases its draft of the carbon pricing bill.

The bill sets out the overall carbon tax framework and obligations for large greenhouse gas emitters, including the measurement, reporting and verification requirements.

It will also give the National Environment Agency (NEA) the powers to make and amend regulations on related matters.

The tax will take the form of a credits-based mechanism, under which facilities pay the tax by buying and surrendering to NEA the number of carbon credits corresponding to their greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft bill was launched on the website of government feedback unit Reach on Tuesday morning. The consultation period for the draft bill will last for six weeks, till Dec 8. This follows public consultation that the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) had conducted earlier in March, on the plan to introduce a carbon tax in Singapore.

The government announced plans to implement a carbon tax of between S$10-S$20 on each tonne of greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 during the Budget session earlier this year.

The tax will be applied on power stations and other large direct emitters which produce over 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases a year. There are currently 30 to 40 of such large emitters, mainly from the petroleum refining, chemicals and semiconductor sectors, said NCCS.