SINGAPORE – A month-long national effort to rally Singaporeans, organisations and the community to take collective action for environmental sustainability and climate resilience was rolled out on Friday.
Go Green SG, launched by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at Mee Toh School in Punggol, features more than 300 activities organised by over 150 partners in July. They include excursions, workshops and games, interactive tours, green dining and musical performances.
Members of the public take part in a puzzle hunt around Marina Bay, or visit the Marine Aquaculture Centre on St John’s Island. More details can be found at https://www.gogreen.gov.sg/
The number of activities is more than double that in 2022, when Go Green SG was known as Climate Action Week. The duration of the event has also been extended by three weeks.
Partners in the national movement, organised by the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), include DBS, City Developments Limited, Mandai Wildlife Group and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
On the collaboration among the private and public sectors, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said: “We hope that this will be a start to many more partnerships to bring this awareness... (and) actions down to all segments of the community.”
“Sustainable development is really about changing our lifestyle, every single one of us,” she added, on the sidelines of the launch.
Minister of State for Education and Manpower Gan Siow Huang, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Sustainability and the Environment Baey Yam Keng, were also present at the event.
Some partners set up interactive booths at Mee Toh School, which hosted the launch after having won the President’s Award for the Environment in 2019. It is also a pilot school for the Ministry of Education’s Eco Stewardship Programme.
The booths featured hands-on activities to teach visitors more about Singapore’s rich biodiversity and sustainability efforts.
For example, DBS’ Sustainability Sparks programme uses games to encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly practices in daily life. This programme is being piloted at Mee Toh School, which will include it in its sustainability curriculum.
Meanwhile, STB is collaborating for the first time with MSE on sustainability-related activities, including interactive tours and attractions, education workshops, dining experiences and green retail. The move comes as sustainability becomes a top priority for eco-conscious tourists, said STB director of special projects Aileen Wong.
She added that Go Green SG offered an opportunity to test the sustainability activities and evaluate whether to continue with them after July.
With Singapore already experiencing higher temperatures, DPM Wong said the Republic alone cannot solve the climate challenge. It is working closely across various international platforms and with like-minded countries while cutting down heat-inducing greenhouse gas emissions within Singapore.
“Building a greener Singapore is a key priority for me and my team. As many of you know, we are currently undertaking the Forward Singapore exercise to review our policies comprehensively, and to refresh our social compact,” said Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister.
He hoped that Go Green SG will inspire many Singaporeans to take meaningful action to green the economy and society.
“You can decide what actions to take based on your own level of preparedness. Sometimes, there may be a tendency to dismiss these sorts of individual actions,” he said.
“But imagine if every household in Singapore does the same thing - increase air-con temperatures by just one degree – we will be able to cut our carbon emissions by 23 kilotonnes, and that’s equivalent to the emissions from 7,000 cars every year.”
Under the Forward Singapore exercise launched by Mr Wong in June 2022, conversations with Singaporeans have been taking place on the challenges and trade-offs that the country has to balance for environmental sustainability and in the transition to a green economy.
Topics ranged from circularity, food resilience, coastal and flood resilience and Singapore’s net-zero emission goal. More than 2,200 Singaporeans have participated in some 30 public engagement sessions.
