SUMMARY READER RESPONSE FINAL DRAFT: "FIVE YEARS SINCE PARIS AGREEMENT, WORLD MUST GET AMBITIOUS ON CLIMATE ACTION" (REVISED)

 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 were announced by leaders worldwide to reduce the impacts of climate change. Additionally, he shared that 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. He believes that making contributions 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 its knowledge, especially on the adoption of alternative fuels in the maritime community, research on electric cars and adaptation to carbon emissions contributes significant reductions in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

 

The first area in which Singapore needs to explore would be the neglected maritime sector. According to Jones (2020), GHG effusions by the port industry were 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 that the aim of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) was 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 investigate zero-emission fuels like hydrogen through its collaboration with Japan. With optimistic research results, local researchers 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 electric vehicles. Priority should be given to vehicles on the road as they account 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 Singapore’s National Research Foundation, an electric taxi, EVA, was invented through the combined efforts 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. However, it should be noted that the electricity that powers the EVA may be generated by other means like solar panels or even natural gas, which also contributes to carbon emissions. Upon certifying EVA’s suitability on roads, Singapore could proceed to expanding its research on EVA to allow more countries to adopt this carbon-free approach and reduce overall emissions globally.

 

The final segment discusses about adaptational technologies to tackle high concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere. According to 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 Centers and the Singapore government combine their efforts to stimulate the buildout of an effective Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration (CCUS) system. She mentioned 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, Singapore would lower the contributing factor of fossil fuels. Such a case would make Sharma’s mention on the British government’s withdrawal of pecuniary aid in fossil fuel energy could be deemed redundant. With positive results on these adaptation strategies, Singapore government should initiate a campaign to embrace such methods universally as it allows the continual functioning of 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 the imparting of research on alternative fuels in the maritime sector, EVA and adaptational technologies could be the overriding factor to major abatements of carbon emissions that result climate change.

 

References

Sharma, A. (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.