No less than three out of 4 respondents (77 per cent) stated that Singapore ought to put in place insurance policies that present firms with stronger disincentives to emit carbon. Of those that backed extra punitive insurance policies on polluters, 64 per cent said that they’d pay extra for the products and companies of corporations that decarbonised at a sooner tempo, countering arguments carbon-intensive firms have used to justify local weather delay by highlighting folks’s financial anxieties.
The month-long public session performed from October 2024, which solicited suggestions on present insurance policies to satisfy Singapore’s goal to satisfy web zero emissions by 2050, acquired 580 responses from members of the general public.
Whereas sharing the findings, the Nationwide Local weather Change Secretariat (NCCS) emphasised that the session was not designed to representatively pattern Singapore’s inhabitants – those that took an curiosity in local weather change points made up 96 per cent of all respondents. However it stated the federal government will take the findings into consideration because it “develops the subsequent certain of Singapore’s local weather targets, measures and insurance policies”.
Ho Xiang Tian, co-founder of native environmental group LepakInSG, informed Eco-Enterprise that the outcomes do “present that Singaporeans, or a minimum of the respondents, are keen to pay greater costs for decarbonisation, which ought to reassure the federal government and firms that doubtlessly elevated prices as a result of decarbonisation shall be accepted by customers”.
Singaporeans between the age of 20 to 39 responded most enthusiastically to the train. However a spokesperson from marketing campaign group Singapore Local weather Rally (SGCR) famous that a minimum of 200 of the respondents had been above 40 years previous, displaying that local weather is not only a “youth” difficulty.
The group stated it was heartened by the outcomes which confirmed that Singaporeans need firms to be extra accountable, so laws needs to be angled in direction of these goals, reasonably than supporting enterprise wants with out transparency.
Singapore turned the primary Southeast Asian nation to have a carbon tax in 2019, when it began charging corporations that emit over 25,000 tonnes of emissions a 12 months S$5 (US$3.70) per tonne of carbon dioxide, masking round 80 per cent of nationwide emissions from some 40 corporations.
Whereas the levy was raised to S$25 (US$18.60) per tonne final 12 months, refiners and petrochemical firms had been reportedly given as much as 76 per cent of rebates for his or her deliberate 2024 and 2025 carbon taxes to stay aggressive in comparison with their rivals elsewhere. This meant that as a substitute of paying 5 instances extra for his or her emissions, the efficient payable carbon tax fee went up by simply S$1 (US$0.74) per tonne.
Since 2024, firms have additionally been capable of offset as much as 5 per cent of taxable emissions utilizing eligible carbon credit. Singapore is on monitor to boost its carbon tax fee to S$45 (US$33.40) per tonne of emission subsequent 12 months.
Some respondents urged the federal government to not permit for the carbon levy’s influence to be eroded by allowances and for extra transparency in how they’re being allotted, some extent which was additionally talked about in SGCR’s public session information.
“With the latest oil spills, we predict the general public, much like us, is questioning why these firms proceed to be supported a lot, when their actions are so pollutive they usually have made file earnings of US$85 billion in 2023,” stated SGCR’s spokesperson.
Eco-Enterprise has reached out to the Ministry of Sustainability and Setting (MSE) to make clear what quantity of emissions are lined by the carbon tax, after accounting for the allowances given out to companies.
Singapore’s carbon pricing guidelines had been amended in 2022 to incorporate an trade transition framework to permit firms in “emissions-intensive trade-exposed” (EITE) industries, just like the power and chemical substances sectors, to have tax rebates within the interim to regulate to the upper charges.
The nation’s Ministry of Commerce and Trade (MTI) has been appointed the administrator of the framework, the place the quantity of allowances awarded to every agency “shall be decided based mostly on their efficiency on specified power effectivity or carbon depth benchmarks,” stated surroundings minister Grace Fu on the amended invoice’s studying.
In response to Eco-Enterprise’ queries in regards to the transition framework, a Singapore authorities spokeperson stated that it “will take into account releasing aggregated info on the quantity of allowances offered whereas balancing the necessity to protect commercially-sensitive info”. The spokesperson added that the framework “shall be reviewed periodically” to consider financial competitiveness, carbon costs in different jurisdictions and maturity of decarbonisation applied sciences.
When the modification was put up for debate, parliamentarians from each the incumbent Folks’s Motion Social gathering (PAP) and opposition Employee’s Social gathering (WP) known as for disclosures of firms’ use of those allowances in addition to worldwide carbon credit. Then-WP member of parliament (MP) Leon Perera proposed an modification to introduce a publicly accessible on-line registry indicating who has acquired such allowances and the ministry’s causes for awarding them.
PAP MP Louis Ng additionally stated: “There isn’t a cause these names [of companies who receive allowances] needs to be a secret.”
The Ministry of Finance’s inexperienced budgeting occasional paper launched on Thursday stated that about S$1 billion (US$740 million) of carbon tax income has been collected thus far since FY2020. Primarily based on Finances Guide 2024, Singapore’s carbon tax revenues for FY2023 had been S$200.2 million (US$148.7 million) and anticipated to extend to S$203.7 million (US$151.3 million) in FY2024.
Earlier this month, skilled companies agency KPMG and Singapore Institute of Administrators additionally beneficial for extra transparency over the allocation of carbon tax revenues to make clear how a lot would go to companies to undertake inexperienced initiatives.
“When it was introduced at the moment, the federal government stated, we’re not going to maintain that cash as a income; we’ve obtained to offer it again to assist firms to decarbonise. However it didn’t specify which areas it will likely be giving companies cash, in order that they will plan their investments and improvements accordingly,” stated Ajay Kumar Sanganeria, companion and head of tax at KPMG Singapore, on the sidelines of the launch of its funds proposal.
Ho estimates that revenues from a S$50 (US$37.20) per tonne carbon tax may absolutely fund carbon dividends for low-income households to cope with the elevated prices in family electrical energy payments, which may additionally improve buy-in for carbon taxes whereas incentivising households to cut back their electrical energy consumption. The remaining may then be channelled again to help companies to assist in their decarbonisation journey as deliberate.
Eco-Enterprise has requested MSE for a breakdown of how the sum has been spent thus far and why the projected revenues in FY2024 are anticipated to extend by only one.7 per cent, regardless of the tax fee growing by 5 instances.
