Concerted effort needed on climate action in 2018

SINGAPORE'S declaration of 2018 as the "Year of Climate Action", backed by plans to soon implement a carbon price, has served to demonstrate the country's determination to lead by example. Furthermore, as Asean chair in 2018, Singapore has a key opportunity to forge a path towards universal access to affordable and sustainable energy across the region.

Countries across South-east Asia are wrestling with the challenge of powering their growing economies. Power generation in Asean more than doubled between 2000 and 2015, and according to recent studies by the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy demand in the region is expected to grow by 80 per cent between 2015 and 2040. Electricity demand is expected to triple over the same period.

Coal still looms large in the region's energy supply. Asean countries have plans to add a further 114GW of coal-fired power generation in the coming decade, which is almost nine times the current capacity of Singapore's electricity grid.