Summary Reader Response Draft 1: "Five years since Paris Agreement, world must get ambitious on climate action"
In the recent news release, “Five years since Paris
Agreement, world must get ambitious on climate action”, Sharma (2020) addressed
the world’s efforts to combat climate change during a global Climate Ambition
Summit co-hosted by the United Kingdom to discuss a strategy for carbon
neutrality. Sharma stated during the summit, 45 nationally determined
contributions (NDC) and 24 net-zero commitments have been announced by leaders
worldwide to reduce the impacts of climate change. Additionally, the British government
withdrew its monetary support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas. He
also mentioned the United Kingdom’s (UK) and Singapore’s government exchange on
educating each other regarding grid decarbonization. He claimed that Singapore
plays a vital role in supporting regional energy transitions, keen on imparting
its knowledge for a sustainable planet. Thus, he believes that contribution is
not an individual effort, and it is proven by the existing pandemic to work
together and achieve success. Equipped with its partnership with UK and
established targets mentioned in the press release, I believe Singapore's
research on energy efficient technologies could make it rise beyond Asia's top
ranked country in reducing carbon emissions.
To start off, under the climate action plan by National
Climate Change Secretariat (2016), statistics showed that Singapore topped 2016
Environmental Performance Index (EPI) in Asia, and "ranked 14th out of 180
countries". Singapore pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by
36% between 2005 to 2030, which was further supported by their commitments in
adopting cleaner fuels like natural gas. For instance, the chief of Maritime
and Port Authority (MPA) wants to incorporate liquefied natural gas (LNG) in
ship engines as a substitute for fuels with high carbon content. With the introduction
of LNG bunkering, more ships can operate via LNG rather than fuel oil which
produces harmful gases like nitrogen and sulfur oxide. Supported by Singapore’s
provision of incentives, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) aims to
reduce half of 2008’s GHG emissions by 2050.
In addition, E2S2, a collaborative research team
organized by NUS Research Institute (NERI) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University is
working on solar gasification, a gasification technology that mitigates carbon
emissions resulted from combustion of waste materials. Incineration of waste is
an alternative to generating electricity as compared to burning fossil fuels
which emits GHG. This technology enables the manufacturing of renewable fuels,
namely a syngas topped up with solar energy, to be used for the incineration of
waste with lowered GHG emissions. Also, research is carried out to reduce CO2
emissions by having a higher production efficiency of electricity through a Solar/Autothermal
hybrid gasification with combined cooling, heat, and power (SAHG-CCHP). The
SAHG-CCHP’s productivity overrides the current Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
incineration processes by over 20%, thus reducing GHG emissions significantly.
Lastly, under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),
Chevron’s Keppel Data Centres and Singapore combine their efforts to stimulate
the buildout of Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration (CCUS) system.
This system “utilize cryogens, membranes and hydrogen” (Mary, 2020) to remove and transfer
carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial processes into geological
storage. Also, NUS researchers have created a compound that extracts CO2
from industrial waste gases. This compound has the potential to be adapted by
carbon-capturing technologies to aid the reduction of CO2. With the
collaboration and research by NUS on carbon-capturing technologies, carbon
emissions can thus be further reduced.
Despite the mentions of technologies above, Singapore is
also working on many other carbon mitigation technologies that contributes to
the overall reduction of emissions. In conclusion, I am thoroughly convinced by
Singapore’s efforts towards carbon neutrality and I believe they will possibly
exceed their aim on reducing GHG emissions by 36%.
References
Alok, S. (2020, 20 December). Commentary: Five years since Paris Agreement, world must get ambitious on climate action. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/uncop26-climate-change-commitment-net-zero-clean-energy-uk-13798700
Climate Action Plan (2016) National Climate Change Secretariat. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1545Climate_Action_Plan_Publication_Part_1.pdf
Mary, P. B. (2020, 7 July) “New CCUS Framework in Development for Singapore”. Chemical Engineering Essentials for The CPI Professional. https://www.chemengonline.com/new-ccus-framework-in-development-for-singapore/
Roslan, K. (2019, 8 November). “Singapore pushes shipping industry to use cleaner fuels to reduce carbon emissions”. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-fuel-regulations/singapore-pushes-shipping-industry-to-use-cleaner-fuels-to-reduce-carbon-emissions-idUKKBN1XI0EF?edition-redirect=uk
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