Sustainable Forest Policy Index
The global climate and biodiversity crises continue to worsen. Yet despite consensus on the role that sustainable forest management can play in reversing these crises, a major empirical gap stands in the way of developing sustainable forest management policies and institutions. That is, there are no existing databases that compare 1) multiple types of forest regulations, 2) across many countries, and 3) over time. Without such data, scholars are unable to assess adequately the mechanisms through which forest regulations strengthen or deteriorate. They are also unable to evaluate rigorously the concrete environmental impacts of forest regulations.
As the climate and biodiversity crises accelerate, there has never been a greater need for transformational environmental policy change on a global scale. By providing researchers and practitioners the data to study drivers of environmental policy trajectories with unprecedented empirical detail, the Sustainable Forest Policy Index will support rapid institutional change that people and the planet require.
Improving Recycling in Singapore
Over the past 40 years, the amount of waste disposed in Singapore increased seven-fold, amounting to 7.7 million tonnes in 2017. This is enough to fill 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. As a result, Singapore’s waste footprint is surprisingly large relative to the city-state’s small size which prompted inclusion of recycling targets in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015. The Blueprint aims to increase the total recycling rate to 70% and domestic recycling rate to 30% by 2030. These goals were later reaffirmed in 2019 in Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan. Efforts to reach the targets included developing the Integrated Waste Management Facility, establishing the Singapore Packaging Agreement, and strengthening the National Recycling Programme by incorporating more educational elements on common recycling bins and providing recycling bins to households in 2022. Despite these efforts, Singapore’s recycling rate hit a 10-year low in 2020. In that year, the volume of waste recycled in Singapore was 3.04 million tonnes representing a 24.8% decrease from 4.04 million tonnes recycled in 2010.
IES will work towards a co-production model for governance of recycling. Theoretical foundations of co-production of services, and citizen-state social contract or shared responsibility for environmental protection provide platforms to assess recycling in Singapore from the viewpoint of citizen engagement and centralization and formalization of informal recycling efforts.
Decarbonization Pathways
Does pricing carbon pave the way to decarbonization? To support a low carbon future, Singapore implemented the first carbon pricing scheme in Southeast Asia on 1 January 2019. The carbon price was initiated at S$5/tCO2e[i] for the first five years from 2019 to 2023 to provide a transitional adjustment period. Then, the price is set to increase to S$25/tCO2e in 2024 and 2025, and S$45/tCO2e in 2026 and 2027, with a target range of S$50-80/tCO2e by 2030. This step change in the tax is intended to send a strong price signal while moving businesses and households towards a low carbon transition pathway in line with national net zero goals.
IES is working to evaluate impacts of Singapore’s carbon tax on corporate responses and household consumption behaviour. The findings will inform policy design lessons for carbon pricing framework to ensure effective outcomes towards decarbonization efforts.
Distributional effect of carbon taxes in Singapore
As the world responds to climate change, policymakers seek to ensure a just or socially equitable transition. A just transition focuses on local and global climate action that protects the planet, people, and the economy, and its significance was recognized in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Singapore commits to achieve a 35% reduction in emissions intensity from 2005 levels by 2030. To aid this trajectory towards a net-zero economy and as discussed in the previous section, the Singapore government implemented a carbon pricing scheme on large emitters in 2019 with plans to increase the rate progressively over the next decade.
While carbon taxes imposed on companies are expected to result in lower emissions, they can also have indirect impacts on households. Existing studies examining such dynamics suggest that carbon taxes are effective in reducing emissions but are likely to have negative impacts on household consumption and the broader economy.
This study investigates the distributional effect by household income of carbon taxes in Singapore by conducting surveys before and after the step change increase in carbon tax to track changes in consumption and expenditure, and to measure the effectiveness of mitigating programmes implemented by the government.