The idea that climate change cannot be halted by the actions of individuals alone is not a new one for the sustainability movement in Singapore. It is the driving force behind efforts to guide individual actions along a more impactful route, encouraging engagement with the government to call for needed systemic change and placing pressure on corporations to reduce environmental harm.
Says Sammie Ng, one of the environmental advocates behind Speak for Climate:"It's not that individual actions are not important, but that it's not just about changing your lifestyle. Through your lifestyle, do you advocate for change? There's a lot of individualised guilt over our role in the climate crisis, but it's not very productive if we don't channel it to changing structural issues.
The list goes on. Such issues are as numerous as the campaigns and groups that have sprung up in this space - Cheryl Lee, an environmental advocate and community manager of non-profit organisation Up2Degrees, has counted more than 55 large organisations in Singapore focused on climate change issues alone.
Ho Xiang Tian, co-founder of environmental group LepakInSG, realises that Singapore is constrained by how much it can accomplish on its own as a small country."It's not like we can set an agenda and everyone else will follow us. We can try to do something about climate change, but if countries in the region or globally don't, we can't make much of a difference.
MEWR and other ministries have also engaged non-governmental organisations and the public in dialogues on sustainability issues, through means like focus group discussions and the NCCS' public consultations. Still, she feels citizens' involvement remains restricted by parameters set by the ministry or agency hosting the discussion. As more trust is built between the government and sustainability groups, she and other advocates hope the two sides will be able to work more collaboratively, lessen the power asymmetry and create greater transparency around how stakeholders are engaged and their feedback incorporated into policies.
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