From the PAP to the Workers’ Party, why are Singapore’s political parties increasingly concerned with climate change?
- Parties from across the political spectrum are treating it as a policy issue ahead of the general election, which must be held before April 2021
- Analysts say young voters especially care about the issue
Goh, the area’s parliamentary representative for over four decades, was responding to constituents who had written to him as part of a youth-led appeal to lawmakers to take action on a range of issues from nature conservation to imposing higher carbon taxes.
Singaporeans have in recent years become more concerned about the costs of climate change. Ground-up movements seeking to change behaviours such as using fewer plastic bags and consuming less meat have sprung up, along with calls for policymakers and businesses to do their part to combat global warming, which has already threatened livelihoods and food security.
And as political parties across the spectrum gear up for an election that must be called by April 2021, they are also consolidating their positions on the issue. In August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his National Day Rally devoted 20 minutes of his 80-minute English speech to climate change, pegging the cost of rising sea levels to be S$100 billion over the next century and calling the issue a “life and death matter”.
“We should treat climate change defences like we treat the [Singapore Armed Forces] – with utmost seriousness,” he said.
On October 29, The Workers’ Party – the island state’s main opposition party – released a statement saying there was a “climate emergency facing our planet”. The party has previously brought up the issue in parliament, and in its 2015 manifesto called for the government to perform a regular risk assessment on climate change.
Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh last month wrote on Facebook that Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds should be more transparent with how much they have invested in sustainability efforts.