Clearing The Air

Why moves to curb tailpipe emissions have met with mixed results, at best.

THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its report in early-October, held up Singapore as a city – alongside Stockholm and London – where vehicle policies had facilitated behavioural change and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

While credit must be given to schemes such as the Vehicle Quota System and Electronic Road Pricing – which have curbed car use and pushed more people towards public transport – other schemes to clear the air have failed to attain their full potential.

Because of that, and because efforts to tackle non-vehicular sources of pollution lack bite, Singapore’s air quality remains less than desirable.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said in January last year that Singapore was not going to meet its 2020 air quality target – especially targets pertaining to particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10).

Singapore was also flagged as a city with among the highest levels of PM2.5, which is especially detrimental to health. Air quality has also begun to surface as an issue affecting Singapore’s competitiveness.

Last year, consulting group ECA International ranked Singapore as the most liveable city for Asian expatriates for the 18th year, but noted that the Republic’s lead had narrowed because of worsening air quality.

There are a number of reasons why we are failing to excel on this front. The implementation of Euro IV emission standard in 2006 may well be the first in recent times.

The industry was not ready for Euro IV, as the Japanese brands – which made up the bulk of diesel commercial vehicles – did not have models that were Euro IV-compliant then.