In a year where the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated media headlines and policy agendas, more countries have recently announced their intentions to raise their initial pledges made at the Paris Agreement. Making a pledge is easy, but it is much harder to implement necessary technological improvements, enact efficiency measures, and reduce consumption. Singapore has announced that it is aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050. While this is an encouraging sign of climate leadership, exactly how Singapore plans to get there is still an open question. As I have written before, for Singapore’s climate efforts to be credible the country must first address its largest carbon footprint contributor: Its petrochemical sector. Most of the petrochemicals produced in Singapore are exported and aren’t counted in Singapore’s emission inventories, yet “leakage” of these emissions to other countries is fundamentally incompatible with a net-zero world. While Singapore is investing heavily in nature-based solutions, such as tree planting and forest protection, these solutions are not adequate to fully offset the carbon footprint of its oil refining sector.... Continue Reading