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When it comes to tackling climate change, we need to be "realists with a quiet optimism", remarked Minister of National Development Desmond Lee during a fireside chat at Ecosperity Week 2023 on Wednesday (Jun. 7).
Tendency for optimism or pessimism
At the event, participants were encouraged to contribute a word that first comes to mind when they think about sustainable cities of the future.
A word cloud was created, and Lee was asked about his opinion about one of the words -- optimism.
Lee said that there was a "tendency" for people engaging in climate change discourse to tend towards "over optimism on the one hand and excessive pessimism on the other".
"I think what we all need to be are realists. Realists with a quiet optimism that this can be done, because it must be done, if the next generation is to have a fighting chance."
He brought up that every layer of authority, from the federal, state, city to the municipal needs to align before work can begin.
Finally, Lee highlighted the importance of "optimism" and "people", but added that it also requires a sense of realism and a sense that action needs to take place today.
Lee gave the opening address on the second day of the conference and touched on a few key sustainability initiatives in Singapore, including:
- Green urban districts like the Jurong Lakeside District
- Major solar panel projects like the one in Tengeh Reservoir
- PUB's S$125 million coastal protection and flood management research programme
- NParks' One Million Trees initiative
"Lush and green" Singapore in 2050
Closing off the session, Lee was asked to describe what Singapore's city in 2050 would look like.
Lee said that the Singapore Green Plan informs the state's vision for 2050.
In achieving Singapore's net-zero goal, he envisions that the city would have "cascading greenery":
"The city is lush and green, covered in trees -- not just on the ground, but vertical buildings. Sometimes you can't even recognise it is a building -- looks like a forest -- actually it's a building.
Lee thinks the city would also make "good use of the benefits that nature brings" by having green spaces in the city.
Singapore's transport system in 2050 would be net-zero and circularity of the economy is clear, "not just for industry leaders but to people on the ground".
Lee said he "imagines people being very focused on and conscious about our [carbon] footprint" and how our daily actions contribute to it.
He also pictures a better social consciousness about waste disposal in 2050.
"Not just leaving it downstream, to what we cannot see, cannot hear, and cannot touch, let the waste disposal do the job -- no -- it's all of us making that conscious decision to be very careful in what we consume and working hard to make good use of all that we have."
Lee said that he sees this culture growing today with Repair Kopitiam, a local initiative that has created a repair community consisting of volunteer coaches who can teach participants how to fix appliances and other household items instead of throwing them away.
He remarked that this would be a "whole change in the way of life":
"You [will see this] carry through in the way our buildings are built and run, in the way we travel around, in the way we do things and the way in which the city and nature become one."
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Top images via Ecosperity and Canva.