SINGAPORE – Geopolitical tensions will make the upcoming international climate negotiations in Dubai even more difficult, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu.

“Countries previously that were leaning forward, that were coming together to make decisions – they’re not talking to each other very much,” she said at an event after giving out awards recognising companies for their sustainability efforts. 

And “sometimes, competition for strategic interests” has got in the way, she noted.

World leaders, politicians and experts will be convening at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai from Nov 30 to Dec 12 to address the climate crisis.

Conflict in the Middle East, the three-year Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war have “caused a tremendous drain on government fiscal positions”, said Ms Fu, adding that this will hinder action needed to tackle climate change.

Ms Fu, who will co-facilitate negotiations on mitigation with Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide at COP28, noted that the 1.5 deg C warming threshold this decade would likely be crossed to between 1.7 deg C and 1.8 deg C, based on combined greenhouse gas contributions and targets so far.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, 196 countries, including Singapore, pledged to limit carbon emissions so that global warming can be kept within 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial temperatures.

Already warmer by about 1.1 deg C above pre-industrial temperatures, the world is now seeing disruptions to water systems and food production. “Just imagine how another few degrees more would really be quite disastrous for the world,” said Ms Fu.

Power generation, the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, will be a key focus in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, she told more than 150 attendees at the event after giving out awards at the 8th Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards Ceremony 2023 on Friday.

“I think this COP, we will focus on power generation, we will focus on the energy transition pathways, to look for common goals and global collective targets,” she said.

She highlighted efforts to triple renewable energy capacity, double energy efficiency rate from the current 2.2 per cent to 4 per cent, and explore technologies to deal with carbon from sources that are hard to abate.

Unlike measures to mitigate climate change that target to limit emissions to 1.5 deg C of warming by 2030, adaptation to climate change is often seen as a “stepchild – that’s the feeling – that we have not been paying enough attention to adaptation”, Ms Fu observed.

Adaptation has suffered from the fact that there are many facets to adaptation, she said.

While adaptation to climate change comes with commonalities such as coastal protection, food, water, health and biodiversity, small island states like Singapore and those in the Pacific Ocean or Caribbean will find it hard to ask for pilot financing.

“Hopefully, in this COP, we can come up with some agreed elements to get all countries to also pay attention and to look at how to adapt to a warmer world,” Ms Fu said.

Singapore, too, needs to have more conversations on adaptation to climate change, she said.

But there are improvements in targets and contributions in its nationally determined contributions towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, she noted.

She listed how the Republic is decarbonising through four strategies – maximising electrification, including electrifying vehicles and maritime transport; decarbonising power generation systems; waste reduction; and capturing carbon in areas that cannot be substituted with non-carbon means.

To eventually decarbonise the entire system, new technologies and solutions would have to be developed. However, Ms Fu said, enabling this would be a “chicken-and-egg problem” – without demand for decarbonised solutions, companies would not be keen to invest in research and development.

“So the Government will want to take a bit of the leadership position and put it in the procurement budget... we are incorporating sustainability criteria into our evaluation. Hopefully, this will cause companies to develop new technologies as well as real solutions on the table.”

At the awards ceremony, organised by the United Nations Global Compact Network Singapore at Orchard Hotel, nine companies were honoured for implementing sustainability into their business practices.