Singapore government cuts FY22 emissions by 3.5% on incineration plant closure
Wong Pei Ting
THE Singapore government used more electricity in the last fiscal year, but still cut total emissions by 3.5 per cent to 3.7 million tonnes due to the decommissioning of the Tuas incineration plant, the inaugural GreenGov.SG government sustainability report showed on Friday (Dec 15).
Without the effect of the decommissioned plant and with the completion of major public infrastructure, the government’s direct and power consumption-based emissions are expected to increase in the current fiscal year.
The Singapore government’s nomenclature denotes the start of a fiscal year, so FY2022 refers to the year ended Mar 31, 2023.
Under Singapore’s decarbonisation plan, the government is aiming to peak its own emissions around 2025.
Total electricity use across the 16 ministries – each consolidating the emissions of its respective agencies – increased 2.2 per cent to 5,591 gigawatt hours in FY2022 as the economy reopened after the lifting of pandemic measures. Likewise, energy utilisation per built-up area rose 4.4 per cent to 120.4 kilowatt hours per square metre.
Without the closing of the Tuas plant, which was the oldest of Singapore’s waste-to-energy incinerators, the government’s greenhouse gas emissions would have ticked up.
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All the top-emitting ministries – apart from the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), under which the Tuas plant was parked – clocked higher emissions than a year ago.
Leading among the top emitters was the Ministry of Transport (MOT), which includes the Land Transport Authority, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. The ministry emitted 6.1 per cent more greenhouse gases in FY2022 from a year ago, to exceed 1.2 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence’s emissions grew 1.3 per cent to almost 480,000 tonnes; the Ministry of Education’s rose 2.2 per cent to exceed 440,000 tonnes; and the Ministry of Health’s rose 0.2 per cent to about 291,000 tonnes.
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The ministry with the highest emissions jump was the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Although its emissions account for less than 1 per cent of the public sector’s, it rose 11.7 per cent in the year.
An MSE spokesperson said this was due to the migration of workloads from agencies’ own data centres to Government Data Centres that are managed by the Government Technology Agency, which comes under PMO. There was also higher energy usage arising from more digital government transactions and processes.
Energy, water and waste
The GreenGov.SG report also covered energy and water use – both rose in FY2022 as well.
On electricity consumption, MOT once again led gains. Although its outsized electricity consumption already sets it apart as the biggest energy user across the board, its usage rose 10.9 per cent to some 1.58 billion kilowatt hours in FY2022 – the highest seen for any ministry. Factors for the increase included the opening of new MRT stations and the adoption of electric buses.
Water use rose 13.1 per cent to 32.9 billion litres from the year before. This was due to the gradual reopening of the economy and increase in activities in FY2022, increased use of school sports facilities by the public, as well as the opening of new healthcare facilities.
The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and its agencies, which include Sport Singapore, contributed the most to this jump. The ministry’s water usage grew 30.6 per cent to reach 2.2 billion litres in FY2022.
Notable exclusions
The GreenGov.SG report covers only government ministries, which includes their respective agencies, not the entire country. The 3.7 million tonnes of public-sector emissions in the report would have been just over 5 per cent of Singapore’s total emissions of 53.7 million tonnes produced in the 2021 calendar year.
On emissions, the report includes only greenhouse gases produced directly by the Singapore government’s operations – defined as Scope 1 emissions by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard – and by the government’s power consumption – or Scope 2.
Supply-chain emissions – Scope 3 – are excluded for now. For instance, the construction of Housing Board flats is not counted because the work is undertaken by external contractors.
The emissions impact of the government’s policies are also not measured in the report, even though policy impact could matter more for Singapore’s decarbonisation goals than a ministry’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
On waste, performance data was left out in this inaugural report because more time is needed to improve the public sector’s data collection processes, MSE said. This is because waste disposal is not metered, unlike electricity and water use.
In addition, waste tends to be co-mingled at bin centres, making it more challenging to attribute the waste disposed to specific agencies in cases where agencies are co-located.
Ideas wanted
Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said that the report signifies the government’s serious commitment to be part of the climate action agenda. “Like the private sector and the wider community, we are learning as we embark on our sustainability journey,” she noted.
Government chief sustainability officer Lim Tuang Liang said that through the sharing of the data, he hopes that “others can undertake similar efforts, and also provide new ideas that the public sector can learn from”.
GreenGov.SG’s stated strategy for emissions is to design energy-efficient infrastructure, harness synergies across operations, electrify vehicle fleets, deploy solar energy, and develop innovative carbon removal solutions. As a result, 39 government buildings have attained at least the Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy standard as of FY2022. This means that the buildings have achieved at least 60 per cent energy savings compared to 2005 levels.
The government had also deployed 60 cleaner energy public buses, and more than 300 megawatt-peak of solar energy, the report noted. Its goals on these fronts are to move to 100 per cent cleaner energy cars by 2035, and install at least 1.5 gigawatt-peak of solar energy in 2030.
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