Public sector carbon emissions fall slightly by 1.9% in FY2024

The public sector’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped slightly by 1.9 per cent in the 2024 financial year (FY) compared with the previous year, but direct emissions are set to rise in the coming years when a new incineration plant starts running.

- Shabana Begum Correspondent

Government agencies released 9.5 per cent less emissions in FY2024 than they did in the baseline year of 2020, the annual GreenGov report revealed on Oct 6.

This is an improvement from the 6.8 per cent reduction in FY2023, compared with 2020 levels. 2020 is used as the baseline year as this was when data collection for emissions began.

For FY2024 – between April 2024 and March 2025 - the public sector emitted around 3.6 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. That is about 6 per cent of the entire country’s emissions in recent years.

Direct emissions from the public sector dropped in the last two financial years due to the decommissioning of Tuas Incineration Plant in 2022. In addition, maintenance of the Tuas South waste-to-energy plant in the last year or so led to a reduction in the amount of waste that could be processed, and differences in the types of waste burned.

Direct emissions are expected to rise again when a new plant, the Integrated Waste Management Facility - part of the upcoming Tuas Nexus - becomes operational in 2027, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) said in a statement on Oct 6.