Summary Reader Response Draft 3: "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. Personally, I agree with Sharma that Singapore has a key role to impart their knowledge, especially on the adoption of alternative fuels in the maritime community, research on electric cars and adaptation to carbon emissions to result significant reductions in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

 

The first area to explore would be the neglected maritime sector. According to Jones (2020), GHG effusions by the port industry was not included in the 2015 Paris Agreement, whereas “90% of world trade is by sea…accounts for between 2% and 3% of global GHG emissions”. He then mentioned International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) aim to facilitate the growth of fuel substitutes like green hydrogen in hope to achieve the proposed 50% reductions in GHG emissions by 2050. He highlighted that Singapore is the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering hub globally and was ready to indagate on zero-emission fuels like hydrogen through its collaboration with Japan. With optimistic research results, Singapore could integrate their knowledge into other countries for the implementation of hydrogen into vessels to ease waterborne GHG that contributes to the overall emissions worldwide.

 

The second element to focus on would be road transportation. Priority should be given to vehicles on the road as it accounts for 15% of the planet’s carbon emissions (Ritchie, 2020). This is due to the large automobile figures that diffuses carbons into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels. Funded by the National Research Foundation, an electric taxi, EVA, was invented through the amalgamation of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and Europe’s Technical University of Munich (Ong, 2015). The engrossing factor of EVA would be its fast-recharging capabilities. With a mere 15-minute charge, Ong mentioned that EVA could travel up to 200 kilometres, which already covers a quarter of Singapore’s circumference. With respect to emissions, electric cars operate via electricity, which means there is no fossil fuels burnt and thus no carbon emissions. Upon certifying EVA’s suitability on roads, I postulate a notable decline in emissions if this innovation is adopted on an international level.

My final segment discusses about adaptational technologies to tackle high concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere. Based on Bailey (2020), “97% of Singapore’s total greenhouse gas” is due to carbon emissions. She stated that 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. She explicated that the system “utilize cryogens, membranes and hydrogen” to remove and transfer carbon dioxide (CO₂) from industrial processes into geological storage. With the mitigation of CO₂, we would eliminate the contributing factor of fossil fuels whereby Sharma’s mention on the British government’s withdrawal of pecuniary aid in fossil fuel energy could be deemed redundant. Therefore, such adaptation strategies should be embraced universally as it allows us to function with our existing resources that are potential GHG emitters whilst minimizing the emissions.

To sum up, Singapore is a role model with extensive knowledge in low-carbon technologies, and it could be the overriding factor to major abatements of carbon emissions that result climate change.

 

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

 

Bailey, M. P. (2020, July 7). New CCUS Framework in Development for Singapore. Chemical Engineering.

https://www.chemengonline.com/new-ccus-framework-in-development-for-singapore/

 

Jones, D. (2020, July 10). Singapore Encourages Investment Toward Decarbonizing Shipping. Lexology.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=37d96f04-cd04-40c4-aa2f-9e22ba15ca4b

 

Ong, G. K. (2015, April 27). Meet EVA, She is the Taxi of Our Future. Techstorm.

https://www.techstorm.tv/meet-eva-she-is-the-taxi-of-our-future/

 

Ritchie, H. (2020, October 6). Cars, planes, trains: where do CO₂ emissions from transport come from? Our World in Data.

https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-transport#:~:text=It%20emits%20just%20under%20one,detail%20in%20an%20upcoming%20article%5D.