Even as the world remains occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, climate change continues to pose a growing danger to the world. Sustainability and environmental preservation continue to be challenges that leaders around the world need to address.
In the final instalment of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s 16th anniversary webinar series, moderator Professor Benjamin Cashore, Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Co-Director of the Institute of Water Policy, was joined by three esteemed faculty to discuss how governments can create fit-for-purpose policies to address the climate crisis.
Clockwise from top left: Professor Benjamin Cashore, Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Co-Director of the Institute of Water Policy; Associate Professor Leong Ching, Dean (Office of Student Affairs), NUS; Assistant Professor Marina Kaneti; Visiting Professor Vinod Thomas
'Super wicked problems' and their challenges
To understand the challenges that governments face when dealing with the climate crisis, Prof Cashore opened the discussion by examining the features of 'super wicked problems', which are important 'additional components to conversations around the environment and sustainability'.
Firstly, time is running out, and there are some environmental issues that are more time-sensitive than others. Carbon emissions, for example, stay in the atmosphere for 300 years, and this will come to a 'tipping point' in the next 10 years, where the risk of harm done to communities and ecosystems, non-linear change and catastrophic events will become too much. By then, it will be "too late to act", said Prof Cashore.
Secondly, there is a lack of a central authority when it comes to climate change and environmental concerns. This means that bureaucrats have no incentives to solve the climate crisis, noted Associate Professor Leong Ching, Associate Professor and Dean (Office of Student Affairs), NUS. "How we think of a bottom-up collaborative governance becomes really important," said Professor Cashore.
Thirdly, a battle against the climate crisis is also a battle against the individual. Those who are causing the problems also want to try and solve them, and this means that a behavioural change is necessary for environmental issues to be addressed.
Lastly, governments tend to develop policies that discount the future, and delay actions in ways that are inconsistent with scientific knowledge about crises. "The wedge between scientific knowledge and what needs to be done is growing, especially in our region of Southeast Asia," said Visiting Professor Vinod Thomas.
China's contributions to the fight against climate change
Environmental and sustainability concerns are, more often than not, interdisciplinary. According to Assistant Professor Marina Kaneti, super wicked problems, geopolitics and the environment all mesh together.
After China's announcement of its plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, Japan and Korea went ahead with their own announcements. To Prof Kaneti, this speaks to the idea of global authority, and how China is rising as a climate leader.
More importantly, this announcement has geopolitical implications. China's dependency on oil and gas is directly linked to its foreign policy, since China sources its oil and gas from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Hence, the decision to reduce their dependency on exports has big implications on their current interest in securitising their sea lanes across the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the Malacca Straits, and for everyone else in the region.
China has also created its own niche by advancing an alternative agenda on climate action and creating an alternative energy field. This field is so massive that it has made alternative energy sources a viable alternative, said Prof Kaneti, an accomplishment that is largely credited to the Chinese.
The "short-term long-term" dilemma
For Prof Thomas, the lack of urgency among nations stems from the "short-term versus long-term conflict".
Countries are ranked based on their short-term performance and are rewarded based on their short-term economic growth. It comes as no surprise, then, that countries would make decisions that benefit their short-term economic growth — including not acting on environmental problems and the climate crisis.
However, what many countries fail to realise is that the opposite is true — not addressing environmental problems is bad for sustained economic growth and progress. Unless these problems are taken on with urgency, economic growth will not take place, warned Prof. Thomas.
"When it comes to future impacts, environmental concerns and economic growth are not at odds with each other," added Prof Cashore. But the problem is that the world has grown to see it that way.
In order for the conflict between the short-term and long-term to be resolved, our metrics of analysis have to change. "We really have to measure things differently, and measure different things," said Prof Thomas.
He also believes that complementary solutions should be part of the agenda, where policies that benefit the long-term without sacrificing the short-term can be implemented. For instance, in some big Southeast Asian cities, climate action has a "complimentary leg" in local pollution control, which in turn, has an effect on the respiratory health of citizens. In this case, then, mitigating long-term environmental problems would also serve to improve the welfare of the people.
Environmental sustainability and economic growth will, at some point, be reconciled by necessity as countries will be forced to react to the growing climate crisis. "The question is, is it going to be a hard landing or a soft landing?" asked Prof Thomas. Will catastrophes have struck before governments decide to take action?
The role and responsibility of small states
When it comes to climate change, the onus often falls onto big states to make changes. After all, in aggregate terms, the United States, China and India collectively make up two-thirds of greenhouse action.
Even though big states have a bigger footprint in absolute terms, small states have a role to play as well. "Small states have a particular niche role to play in the types of policies they can introduce, and the type of technological innovations they can disseminate to others," said Prof Kaneti.
Singapore, for example, served as an experiment in how urbanisation and environmentalism can coexist. Its efforts towards reducing dependence on food imports and to grow 30% of their own food has a lot of policy implications for other countries, said Prof Leong. Other small states can look at Singapore's efforts in food security, and decide if it is relevant and applicable to them.
In the same vein, Prof Thomas suggested that Singapore, in particular, can be an example for the rest of Southeast Asia when it comes to addressing environmental concerns. Being the highest per capita economy in Asia, Singapore can be a great influence in the regional, if not global, context.
Adaption or mitigation: which is more important?
Adaptation and mitigation are both key ways to address and combat the climate crisis. When it comes to deciding which one of the two ought to be prioritised, cost-efficiency analysis, dual analysis, and quantitative analysis should be used.
Prof Thomas believes that adaptation - meaning coping - and mitigation - meaning preventing - are equally important as one without the other cannot be effective, and efforts should be split between the two. It will not be possible to solve the climate problem without going to its root causes even while adapting to the accumulating threat at the same time. "With inadequate mitigation, it's going to be a never-ending crisis," he said. "We'll not be able to withstand the fallout from growing greenhouse gases and runaway climate change."
Prof Leong, however, brings a different, more contextualised perspective — she believes that adaptation ought to be the priority for Singapore. During the 2015 droughts, the Singapore government's excellent mitigation measures and infrastructural resilience meant that the water supply was never affected.
However, the citizens were unable to adapt well, and were not circumspect in their water consumption. In fact, water use increased by 5%. To her, this demonstrates that Singapore has a long way to go in their social and behavioural adaptation measures.
Stubborn optimism in the face of the climate crisis
Working on climate issues may require "stubborn optimism" said Prof Kaneti, but not all hope is lost.
A research experiment conducted in Singapore that found that Singaporeans who were told to save water simply because "it's a good thing to do" saved just as much water as those who were paid to do so. This indicates that citizens are motivated by their ethics and values to engage in environmentally-friendly activities, noted Prof Leong.
Additionally, she believes that there is hope in how governments are now responding more to the people across all political spectrums. "The people must provide this pressure to governments."
Lastly, the younger generation around the world and in ASEAN are becoming more engaged with environmental concerns. "It's very important, going forward, to incorporate young people into how we think about and how we work on climate issues," advised Prof Kaneti.
Photo credit: Paddy O'Sullivan
Watch Sustainability & the Environment: Challenges & Opportunities for Asia: