About

The Green New Deal is a plan for Singapore to transition to a resilient, sustainable economy that creates jobs, improves quality of life and meets scientific targets to limit global warming to <1.5C.

Prosperity for the 21st century

Singapore faces new challenges to survive and stay relevant in the 21st century. The pressures of an ageing population, disruptive potential of automation and declining growth of global trade demand new economic strategy that delivers meaningful and equitable value for all members of society and is resilient in a volatile global environment. What is needed is an economic strategy based on the creative, innovative potential of people, rather than a deepwater port or industrial infrastructure as the comparative advantage and one that does it's part to serve the region and our global village by doing its part on collective challenges. Singapore has made the first steps to mitigate the effects of climate change, and based on policy analysis of 3rd party reports such as Climate Action Tracker, there is more work to be done to close the policy gaps to meet the IPCC targets for 1.5C. A Green New Deal can prepare Singapore to be relevant in the 21st century through public investments in the lives of people and the health of the ecosystems through energy system decarbonization and conservation.

The policy proposal is inspired by Green New Deal climate policies worldwide such as the Green New Deal for Europe that are designed to address the needs for everyday Singaporeans facing rising costs of living, declining quality of life, intensifying job competition and match the scale and speed of the economic transformation called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their Special Report SR15 (October 2018)..

The policy measures are founded on the principles of putting a meaningful cost on carbon emissions to drive entrepreneurial innovation towards green solutions; creating a fair deal for the working class; ensuring a just transition for workers in sunset industries; co-creating as a form of participation in policy formation to utilize the creativity of citizens inside and outside of Singapore; and strengthening relationships for regional ASEAN cooperation. Finally, the policy reforms should embrace the cultural values and heritage of Singapore and Southeast Asia. The policy design should exercise restraint in making changes where there is a compelling need to do so, and capitalize on the best practices of policy successes of the past and present.

Singapore’s Green New Deal can form part of Southeast Asia’s Green New Deal. A low-carbon future for Singapore demands strengthening economic bonds with regional partners and allies on common issues of shared fates. The policies promote strong financial, technological, migrant and trade ties for multilateral solutions. International governmental and business partnerships and collaborations will be crucial in getting to our common future together.

The Green New Deal report

The policy proposal report is organized into a report with 8 sections. Each section covers a perspective of how the policy would be implemented. The Green New Deal touches on all aspects of society and is necessarily a tripartite effort which will succeed or fail based on whether all of society has buy-in and on-board with the implementation.

Sections

• 01 The case for a Green New Deal

  • From port to people - economic strategy fit-for-purpose for the 21st century

  • Carbon constrained - Singapore's climate change policy gaps

• 02 Macroeconomics for the knowledge economy

• 03 Invest in people - closing gaps in inequality and poverty

• 04 Invest in ecosystems - decarbonizing energy

• 05 Just transition from sunset to sustainable

• 06 Shared path to prosperity in Southeast Asia

• 07 Stakeholder enterprise management

• 08 Flourishing as humans in the 21st century

The economic strategy for the knowledge economy connects each of the main topics onto a common policy framework. The macroeconomics toolkit set the guidelines and constraints for what is possible for public investments and what is needed in order to sustain the prosperity and economic health in the new economy and in the transition. The areas where public investments are needed are regeneration of the public commons which have been neglected by externalities created by the 20th century economic model. These public commons are the under paid services provided by households and natural ecosystem. Adapting the policy to the perspective to neighbors in Southeast Asia region, businesses and households enables everyone to be able to understand how they would benefit from and could contribute to realizing this vision.