Singapore will establish a national database for country-specific emission factors, which will translate various business activities into greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate companies to conduct emission reporting, Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), said April 15 at Ecosperity Week 2024.
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Register NowThree quarters of Singaporean companies have introduced plans for ESG [Environmental, Social & Governance] implementation, however, 60% of these companies expressed concerns over the lack of metrics that can be used as references to conduct emission accounting and ESG-related reporting, a survey by Singapore Business Federation (SBF) showed.
The national database is established to tackle this challenge. The database, called Singapore Emission Factors Registry (SEFR), will be jointly developed by SBF, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), PwC and Singtel, with the support of the government, Minister Fu said.
She highlighted that the database is expected to help companies to conduct emission accounting and tracking "more easily and accurately, saving time and efforts," adding that better reporting will also enable companies to make informed investment decisions.
Currently, most Singapore companies use international emission factors for their sustainability and carbon emissions reporting, especially for Scope 3 emissions, SBF said in a statement released on the same day. Scope 3 emissions refer to indirect emissions incurred by the upstream and downstream of a company's supply chains, which are usually difficult to track and abate.
Some Singapore companies nowadays use emission factor data provided by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), SBF added.
"The EFs [Singapore-specific Emission Factors] will be developed in phases with an initial baseload comprising data collected and consolidated from various government agencies ready by the end of 2024," SBF said in the statement.
The first set of local emission factors will cover activities in transportation, water, general waste treatment, and energy sectors, SBF said, adding that emission factors for new categories and activities will be developed and released subsequently based on industry consultations and demand.