Public sector carbon emissions fall slightly in FY2024, but set to rise with new energy plant in 2027

SINGAPORE - 06/Oct/2025

The public sector’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped slightly by 1.9 per cent in the 2024 financial year, compared with 2023, but direct emissions are set to rise in the coming years when a new incineration plant starts running.

Government agencies released 9.5 per cent less emissions in 2024 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 2023, compared against 2020 levels. The year 2020 is used as the baseline year, as this was when data collection for emissions began.

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 during the 2024 financial year due to the

decommissioning of the Tuas Waste-To-Energy incineration plant

in 2022. In addition, maintenance of the remaining Tuas South Waste-to-Energy plant led to a reduction in the amount of waste that could be processed,and differences in the types of waste burnt.

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, said the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) on Oct 6 in a statement.

The 88-page report added that the Government is launching a pilot to test the deployment of carbon capture and storage technology, which entails the capturing of carbon dioxide emitted from plants, preventing it from accumulating in the atmosphere. This has the potential to significantly reduce direct emissions from waste incineration, said the report.

Direct emissions refer to emissions released from an organisation, through burning natural gas, using diesel, or when waste materials are burned for energy.

The public sector aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2045, five years ahead of the entire country. As part of this plan, the sector will peak emissions around 2025. This means that the public sector’s emissions will reach its highest around this period and stop growing, before starting to decline.

The public sector’s use of electricity, and heating and cooling, however, rose by 2 per cent from 2023 levels because of new infrastructure in the transport and healthcare sectors.

These include the

opening of stage four of the Thomson-East Coast Line

, Woodlands Health Campus and Tan Tock Seng Hospital Integrated Care Hub.

This 2 per cent increase refers to indirect emissions due to the purchase of electricity, steam, heating and cooling for public buildings and infrastructure.

MSE said more growth in indirect emissions is expected as Singapore’s public infrastructure expands.

However, “we are taking deliberate steps to maximise resource efficiency in both new and existing facilities, whilst accelerating renewable energy deployment and imports”, it added.

On that note, the energy efficiency of government facilities showed slight improvement, with a 0.4 per cent reduction in buildings’ energy use intensity, compared with 2023 levels. In contrast with the 2018 to 2020 baseline, the 2024 figure was a 3 per cent improvement.

This is due to facilities tapping more solar energy and smart tech, with older buildings being retrofitted to reach Green Mark Platinum standards, said the report.

The public sector’s water use and amount of waste produced has also gone down over the years.

In the 2024 financial year, it was 32.9 billion litres, a 3.3 per cent decrease from 2023.

More water was saved over the years with agencies proactively detecting leaks through smart monitoring, improving water-intensive processes, and coming up with initiatives to reuse water, said MSE.