THE Singapore government’s green report card, released on Dec 15, provides a glimpse of some issues that the Republic as a whole faces in its sustainability efforts.

Granted, the inaugural GreenGov.SG government sustainability report looks at only public-sector emissions. The public sector is not a microcosm of the country; its operations do not reflect the composition of the wider economy. In that sense, the report is not representative of Singapore’s situation. Nor is the government a needle-moving contributor to emissions – at least not directly.

The report covers the government’s Scope 1 emissions, or those produced directly by its operations, as well as Scope 2 emissions, or those associated with its power consumption. It excludes Scope 3 emissions from activities along the supply chain. By this measure, the public sector was responsible for 3.7 million tonnes of emissions in the fiscal year ended Mar 31, 2023. While a corresponding national figure is not available, this is under a tenth of Singapore’s total emissions of 53.7 million tonnes in the 2021 calendar year. Yet even if not literally representative, the government sustainability report does foreshadow wider issues.