The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) has responded to the recent Living Planet Report produced by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), saying, "the report fails to recognise Singapore's unique circumstances as a small island city-state with no hinterland" and that it "has to import almost all food, materials and goods for daily life and economic activities".
Singapore now has the world's seventh largest ecological footprint, out of 150 or so countries studied in the report.
In a statement released yesterday, the Ministry pointed out that the method used in the report to measure the ecological footprint was one that deviates from the internationally-accepted carbon accounting methodology of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which measures emissions produced by the exporting country, not the stream of imports going into the importing country. "While we can reduce consumption, improve operational efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of activities taking place within Singapore’s borders, we have no control over the upstream manufacturing and processing of imports — and hence their carbon footprint."
MEWR also pointed out that the report did not take into account Singapore's small geographical size, which means it has little access to renewable sources of energy that can substitute for the use of fossil fuels. "Solar energy is technically feasible and Singapore has been making steady progress to invest in this renewable energy source for widespread adoption, but even this is limited by the small geographical size of Singapore and the lack of a rural hinterland.
Nevertheless, we have already switched from fuel oil to natural gas for power generation to reduce the amount of carbon per unit of electricity generated."
The statement concludes by saying that given the questionable methodology and lack of reference to the city-state's geographical conditions, that it is produces the 7th largest ecological footprint in the index is "mistaken".
MEWR quotes other studies it feels are more accurate, including the 2014 Environmental Performance Index jointly produced by the World Economic Forum, as well as the Economist Intelligence Unit and Siemen's 2013 Asian Green City Index.
Photo: William Cho / Wikimedia Commons
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If everyone lived like Singaporeans, 4.1 planets would be needed to sustain our needs: WWF
The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) has responded to the recent Living Planet Report produced by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), saying, "the report fails to recognise Singapore's unique circumstances as a small island city-state with no hinterland" and that it "has to import almost all food, materials and goods for daily life and economic activities".
Singapore now has the world's seventh largest ecological footprint, out of 150 or so countries studied in the report.
In a statement released yesterday, the Ministry pointed out that the method used in the report to measure the ecological footprint was one that deviates from the internationally-accepted carbon accounting methodology of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which measures emissions produced by the exporting country, not the stream of imports going into the importing country. "While we can reduce consumption, improve operational efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of activities taking place within Singapore’s borders, we have no control over the upstream manufacturing and processing of imports — and hence their carbon footprint."
MEWR also pointed out that the report did not take into account Singapore's small geographical size, which means it has little access to renewable sources of energy that can substitute for the use of fossil fuels. "Solar energy is technically feasible and Singapore has been making steady progress to invest in this renewable energy source for widespread adoption, but even this is limited by the small geographical size of Singapore and the lack of a rural hinterland.
Nevertheless, we have already switched from fuel oil to natural gas for power generation to reduce the amount of carbon per unit of electricity generated."
The statement concludes by saying that given the questionable methodology and lack of reference to the city-state's geographical conditions, that it is produces the 7th largest ecological footprint in the index is "mistaken".
MEWR quotes other studies it feels are more accurate, including the 2014 Environmental Performance Index jointly produced by the World Economic Forum, as well as the Economist Intelligence Unit and Siemen's 2013 Asian Green City Index.
Photo: William Cho / Wikimedia Commons
Read Also:
If everyone lived like Singaporeans, 4.1 planets would be needed to sustain our needs: WWF