Budget 2024: Embracing climate action for sustainable growth 

WITH Singapore facing a worst-case scenario of a 5 deg C rise in temperature by the end of the century, urgent action is imperative to curb the escalation of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the potential impacts of global warming.

Singapore’s Budget 2024, announced on Friday (Feb 16), set a critical tone by addressing pressing issues such as catalysing Singapore’s clean energy pathways, resilience and sustainable development, highlighting the government’s commitment and determination to accelerate the nation’s transition to a net-zero carbon economy.

Incentivising the pathway to net-zero

Natural gas – lauded as the cleanest of all fossil fuels – currently makes up around 95 per cent of Singapore’s energy mix. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong acknowledged that moving from a system powered almost entirely by natural gas to one powered by clean energy would require enormous efforts, infrastructure shifts and costs.