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5 Things To Know About Singapore’s Approach To The Environment
Local environmentalists have a tendency to go overboard in their accusations of the PAP government when it comes to the environment. The image being painted in the popular media of the government is that it has largely neglected environmental preservation at the expense of unbridled economic growth.
Yet, a cursory study of the history of Singapore’s environmental policy and you will find this narrative to be largely without basis. In truth, the government has long committed to environmental efforts since the city-state’s independence. And it has performed relatively well.
The general approach Singapore has taken can be summarised as such:
A pro-growth long term investment strategy in energy-efficient infrastructure that deploys the use of free market mechanisms to phase out environmental harmful practices, as opposed to hard-handed carbon taxes and outright bans.
My coauthor Bryan Cheang and I capture this in much more detail in our upcoming book Liberalism Unveiled, but here are 5 quick pointers anyone interested in Singapore’s approach to the environment should know.
1. Based on most environmental measures, Singapore is doing exceedingly well. First, the Environmental Performance Index that measures environmental health across 180…
