Minister Grace Fu suggested that the region's emissions allowance would be better spent on manufacturing industries needed to sustain the aspirations of a young and growing Southeast Asia. Countries besides Singapore are needed to build an Asean renewables-based energy grid.
Economist Michael Greenstone, who first put a price on emissions for the US government, says that unless the price gap between fossil fuels and clean energy narrows, poor countries will face difficult trade-offs amid climate breakdown.
The country’s largest utilities could have 11 million more tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year than needed by 2030. The resultant gas exports could create overcapacity and fry climate targets in emerging Asian markets, analysts say.
This is according to projections done by the city-state, which wants to scale up import capacity for shipped gas and cut reliance on pipelines from Indonesia and Malaysia.