Singapore

The notoriously difficult-to-predict El Niño weather pattern that clouded Singapore in a haze crisis four years ago could be back in some form this year. But this time, the Republic will be better prepared for it. Read more.

Warnings about the global impact of climate change continue to mount. And Northeastern student Ryan Maia has heard these warnings. But working on a research project in Singapore compelled him to him turn his attention more toward the solutions to climate change than the risks it poses to people and the environment. In 2017, Maia visited Singapore and interviewed government officials, leaders at non-governmental organizations,…

This was thrice the number reported over the same two-week period in January last year, said Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor yesterday. Over the past year, dengue cases have climbed as well. There were 3,285 incidents last year, almost 20 percent more than in 2017. In a Facebook post, Dr Khor said higher temperatures and rainfall…

The study, which was conducted by researchers from the Department of Geography at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, indicates that nations with large coastlines could expand these ecosystems to further counteract their fossil fuel emissions. These findings were published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters on 24 October 2018. With the recent Paris Agreement setting a target for all nations to…

Corteva, for instance, has access to seven million farmers in South and Southeast Asia through its educational and outreach schemes, while Irri has expertise in rice genetics. Mr Peter Ford, president ofCorteva Agriscience (Asia-Pacific), said: "Our shared goal for this partnership is to help rice farmers to become more productive and sustainable." Irri director-general Matthew Morell said Singapore's importance to international…

As global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, ASEAN nations, including Singapore, are bearing the brunt of intensifying climate impacts such as rising sea levels as well as more intense extreme weather events. The reaction to this climate challenge, at the government, community, and business levels, has been to ramp up the search for sustainable solutions that help reduce waste and emissions, improve resource efficiency…

As the last pristine wilderness of our planet, Antarctica officially belongs to no one — yet everyone has a stake in it. This remote continent is a window into both our past and future, and it is trying to tell us something. A giant, ice-covered landmass about a third the size of Asia, Antarctica’s existence is under siege. The rapid collapse of the Antarctic glaciers…

The reasons for UHI are well known. Cities have less vegetation than rural areas to provide shade and to cool the air; they consume huge amounts of energy in electricity and fuel; they trap the sun’s radiation in deep urban canyons between high buildings, and they contain massive amounts of steel and concrete that store the sun’s warmth. To be clear, UHI is not the…

As chair of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, Singapore will also host a special ministerial meeting on climate change in July, announced Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli on Friday (Jan 26).Speaking at the launch event for the Year of Climate Action held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, Mr Masagos said Singapore’s journey to fight climate change is…

This comes after the Finance Ministry was reported to have engaged over 50 of them to do the same for the Budget process. A Mewr spokesman told The Straits Times that it has paid 28 micro-influencers, with a combined reach of 100,000, for a three-month marketing campaign which started last month. According to a Forbes article, micro-influencers refer to everyday consumers who have a following…

The Sydney-based financial green group has shared exclusive data with Eco-Business that shows that DBS Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank (UOB)—Singapore’s big three banks—have provided loans to 21 coal power projectstotallingUS$2.29 billion over the last five years. These projects—mainly large-scale coal-burning facilities in Indonesia and Australia—throw shade on the banks’ responsible lending policies and public commitments to reduce carbon emissions…

However, the island is vulnerable to another effect of climate change: rising sea levels, which cause coastal floods and erosion. The country is taking steps to strengthen its defenses against this. An ongoing, first-of-its-kind study commissioned by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will form the national framework for coastal protection measures. The authority did not provide details on what measures are being looked at…

His ministry wants the public to know “the government alone cannot tackle climate change”, and will be rallying Singaporeans to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint with the help of various partners. On the ground, there is no lack of enthusiasm among environmental activists, who already have plans lined up to get people to take little steps to make a difference – bring their…

Speaking at the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, Mr Masagos Zulkifli stressed Singapore’s commitment to fight climate change, given that the island-state is vulnerable to the environmental impact. He said that while Singapore has placed considerable emphasis on sustainable development in its early years of nation-building, “we want to do more to instill awareness of climate change among our citizens and…

Building facades that can generate electricity from the sun, movable solar systems, and floating solar energy plants—if this sounds like a vision of the future, that’s because it is for space-crunched Singapore. These innovations form the centerpiece of the island nation’s ongoing push to develop solar technologies suited for cities like Singapore, known as “urban solar”. The 720 square kilometers city-state has the third-highest population…

That is not surprising for a small, low-lying, island city-state that is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Last year, it joined more than 120 countries to ratify the Paris Agreement, committing to tackle climate change through reducing emissions intensity by 36 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. One method Singapore policymakers have adopted to reduce the city-state’s carbon footprint is by moving away from fossil…

No salary But his love for plants pushed him on despite the tough circumstances. He was bootstrapping, and owed more than S$300,000 in debt. He went without a salary for two to three years. He was a botanist at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1987, and held other positions such as assistant curator of horticulture at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari and…

Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, is hurtling its way through the Caribbean and will reach the Florida coastline today, where 5.6 million people have been ordered out of Irma's path. But in its wake, the hurricane has devastated communities and left at least 21 dead. It follows tropical cyclones that have ripped across other parts of the world…

The floating fish farm, being developed by the world's largest oil rig builder, Keppel Offshore and Marine, features extensive automation in the feeding, health-monitoring and cleaning of fish in both underwater and above-water facilities. Although the design is still at the conceptual stage, it demonstrates how farming, an activity normally associated with manual labour and old-fashioned implements, can be engineered into a highly efficient and…

The BYO—which stands for ‘bring your own’—campaign calls on Singaporeans to bring their own bags and containers when buying food and drinks, with the aim of cutting down on the amount of discarded take-away plastic. Singapore threw away 822,000 tonnes of plastic last year, out of which only seven per cent was recycled, according to data from the National Environment Agency. Although plastic can be…