Debated in Parliament on 13 Sep 2021.
Ms Poh Li San asked the Minister for National Development in view of the “code red for humanity” warning in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report and the building and household sectors making up the second highest source of carbon emissions in Singapore (a) whether the Ministry will consider slowing down the sale of Government land parcels for new developments to preserve more green spaces; and (b) how will the Ministry incentivise existing building owners to switch to more energy efficient air-conditioning systems.
The Government is committed to taking decisive action to mitigate climate change. The Singapore Green Plan 2030, which we launched earlier this year, charts ambitious and concrete targets for sustainable development over the next decade. One of our key priorities under the Green Plan is to accelerate our transition to a more sustainable, low-carbon built environment.
The Government adopts a long-term approach towards land use planning, with stewardship and sustainability as core principles. We have to balance demands and trade-offs across a wide variety of needs, including housing, green spaces, workplaces, amongst others.
We adopt various strategies to make the most of our land, while incorporating flexibility in our plans, to meet the changing needs and aspirations of each new generation. These include redeveloping brownfield sites, increasing the density of developments and co-locating suitable uses to optimise our land.
For our green spaces, we adopt a science-based approach to nature conservation. Today, as a result of this approach, we have safeguarded approximately 7,800 hectares of our land for Nature Reserves, Nature Areas, Nature Parks and other green spaces, such as parks and park connectors. We have retained a number of ecologically important sites as green spaces, although they had initially been designated for other uses. For example, while Dairy Farm Nature Park and Rifle Range Nature Park could have been developed for housing, we decided to keep them as green buffers to our Nature Reserves given their ecological value.
As part of our efforts to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, we will add another 1,000 hectares of green spaces over the next 10 to 15 years and weave greenery more intensively into our urban areas. By 2030, we will plant one million more trees across Singapore under the OneMillionTrees movement, replacing trees lost to development and more.
We are committed to stewarding and protecting our green spaces. However, given our scarce land, there will be greenfield sites that we have to develop. Where development cannot be avoided, we proceed with care. Supply of Government land for new developments is carefully calibrated and regularly reviewed, taking into account considerations such as land use needs, macroeconomic conditions, and ecological factors.
We also take steps to minimise the environmental footprint of new developments. We impose higher sustainability requirements for Government Land Sale (GLS) sites in selected strategic areas, beyond the minimum legislative requirements. For example, projects developed in Marina Bay are currently required to attain BCA’s Green Mark Platinum certification.
To encourage building owners to switch to more energy-efficient cooling systems, BCA administers the Grant for Low-Global Warming Potential (GWP) Refrigerant Chillers, which supports part of the cost of switching to chillers that use climate-friendly refrigerants. Such chillers help building owners to not only reduce their buildings’ emissions, but to also reap energy cost savings over time. Building owners who need financial assistance to undertake retrofitting works may also tap on the Building Retrofit Energy Efficiency Financing (BREEF) scheme, which helps to finance the upfront cost of energy efficiency retrofits through an energy performance contract arrangement with a participating financial institution.
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