Singapore is South-east Asia’s most likely climate leader: survey
SINGAPORE is deemed to have the most potential as South-east Asia’s climate leader among its Asean peers, based on findings from the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey 2023 by Iseas – Yusof Ishak Institute, which were shared on Thursday (Sep 21) at the report’s launch.
Similar to the previous year’s results, 38.7 per cent of respondents said Singapore has the potential to be the region’s climate leader, with Indonesia coming in second (12.2 per cent) and Thailand, third (11.6 per cent).
Apart from 69.9 per cent of Singapore respondents who chose their own country, Vietnam gave Singapore the second-highest approval ratings at 50.4 per cent, followed by 42.6 per cent of respondents in the Philippines.
“The perception that Singapore can be a climate leader in the region corresponds with Singapore’s active efforts,” said Iseas. It also highlighted the city-state as the only South-east Asian Parliament, to its knowledge, that declared a climate emergency and called on its government to take bolder action.
Nearly half, or 44.1 per cent of Singapore respondents, agreed that their government considers climate change an urgent national priority and allocates sufficient resources to address this threat.
This contrasted with the proportion of regional respondents, of whom 35.7 per cent believe their governments are aware of climate threats – but do not allocate sufficient resources to address them. The sceptical view was most apparent among Vietnam (45.7 per cent), Indonesia (43.5 per cent) and Malaysia (40.5 per cent) respondents.
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Just 24.8 per cent of South-east Asian respondents’ views resonated with Singapore’s.
Notably, Iseas said its most surprising finding in this year’s survey was a “marked decline in the perception of threat urgency”.
Only 49 per cent of regional respondents perceived climate change as a serious and immediate threat to the well-being of their country, compared with 69 per cent in 2021.
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The observation came despite the region’s major floods, heatwaves and droughts which took place this year with climate change as the predominant cause, noted the organisation.
While rainfall-induced landslides were a top concern among overall respondents last year, this has been replaced by droughts, which were viewed as the third-most serious climate change impact experienced by the region at 47.6 per cent, after heat waves (51.4 per cent) and floods (79 per cent).
The greatest concern among Singapore respondents was sea-level rise (86 per cent), which Iseas attributed to the island’s low-lying position along the equator, followed by heat waves (85.3 per cent).
The city-state’s participants also had the most favourable perceptions about hydrogen, biofuels and nuclear energy as sources of clean energy with the greatest potential in their country.
They, however, lagged behind Indonesia and the Philippines in terms of supporting the immediate phasing out of coal, with a preference to wait until 2030.
In its fourth annual edition, the survey drew a total of 2,225 responses from citizens of all 10 Asean states on their attitudes and perceptions towards climate change issues.
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