I REFER to the commentary “Government sustainability reports need to demonstrate greater clarity, better leadership” (BT, Dec 27, 2023).

The government publishes a wide range of reports to communicate Singapore’s efforts and progress in sustainability. These include the Biennial Update Report to the United Nations, which explains our national-level mitigation measures and tracks the progress of our Nationally Determined Contributions.

The GreenGov.SG report is our first report card detailing the whole-of-government’s efforts and progress in environmental sustainability. Singapore is among the very few countries that have published such reports.

Specifically, the GreenGov.SG report is a progress update of the public sector’s efforts in carbon abatement and resource efficiency at the organisational level. There are two main considerations which underpin the GreenGov.SG report.  

First, we want to catalyse and drive environmental efforts across Singapore. Other than performance, we have included the public sector’s own strategies and case studies, which businesses, non-governmental organisations and community groups can reference for adoption or developing new ideas that suit their specific circumstances.

Second, with greater transparency, this report can spur ministry families to continuously strive to further minimise the environmental impact of their operations.    

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Apart from the GreenGov.SG report, we have mandated statutory boards to publish their own environmental sustainability disclosures from Financial Year 2024. As sustainability reporting is relatively new to the public sector, one key priority at this juncture is to ensure that agencies develop the necessary processes and systems to track and reduce their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are the greenhouse gas emissions produced directly and indirectly by an organisation’s operations and own use of energy, as well as electricity and water use. We also aim to start reporting on public agencies’ waste generation from this year.   

We recognise that tracking Scope 3 emissions – which measures emissions arising from upstream and downstream value chains – play a part in the sustainability journey. However, this is a major undertaking, given the wide range of government activities that cut across many industry sectors with differing degrees of reporting capabilities. We are studying what would be an appropriate approach.

We welcome suggestions on how we can strengthen future GreenGov.SG reports. Members of the public who wish to share their feedback or partner the public service to trial new ideas in environmental sustainability may contact us at mse_feedback@mse.gov.sg.

Lim Tuang Liang

Government chief sustainability officer

Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment