$23.5m effort to find out impact of climate change on S'pore

A $23.5 million programme was launched yesterday to uncover the long-term impact of climate change on Singapore - from sea-level rise to food insecurity - and to help guide policies to tackle these issues.

The Climate Impact Science Research Programme - helmed by the National Environment Agency's (NEA) Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) - will focus on five key priorities.

These are sea-level rise, water resource and flood management, biodiversity and food security, human health and energy, and cross-cutting research to bridge science and policy.

The five-year research programme will result in 15 to 20 projects focused on those areas, done in collaboration with local universities.

Dr Dale Barker, director of the CCRS, said yesterday that the new programme will build on and complement existing climate change research, including the $10 million National Sea Level Programme that was launched in 2019 to address knowledge gaps in past and present sea-level changes.

Beyond gradual sea-level rise, the new research programme will also look at worst-case scenarios where extreme weather events can push up the tides further, adding to a much larger flooding event.

Dr Barker was speaking at the third Sea Level Conference of the World Climate Research Programme, held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre from yesterday to Saturday. He added that the new programme will result in practical solutions to guide possible adaptation measures.

The Climate Impact Science Research Programme adds to the Republic's existing investment in climate science, such as the $25 million Marine Climate Change Science programme, which looks into marine habitats and ecosystems to enhance their resilience against climate change.

Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu, who was also speaking at the event yesterday, said the new programme will bring together research in climate science and focus on knowledge gaps.

Ms Fu cited a recent United Nations climate change report which found that in the worst-case scenario, more than 30 per cent of global crop and livestock areas could become climatically unsuitable by 2100.

"By downscaling global climate projections and producing localised, high-resolution models of wind, rainfall and temperature, we can better assess the impacts of climate change on local crop and aquaculture yields," she added.

This could lead to the development of climate-resilient crop varieties or selection of sea spaces with more suitable habitat conditions for aquaculture, she noted.

The CCRS is currently downscaling and fine-tuning global climate projections though its third national climate change study.

A better understanding of Singapore's latest climate projections - on extreme weather events such as droughts and intense rainfall - could also affect its water resource and flood management practices, said the NEA yesterday.

For instance, studies on the impact of water run-off from increased rainfall can help the country to plan its flood mitigation measures, such as through local detention tanks that collect and store storm water run-off and then release it at controlled rates via a downstream drainage system.

There will also be studies examining how changes to ocean circulation in the region will add to the risk of coastal flooding due to sea-level rise as well as extreme tides and surges - which could help to inform the adequacy of protection measures, said the NEA.

These will complement national water agency PUB's coastal-inland flood model - which is capable of simulating and evaluating inland and coastal floods in tandem.

PUB has embarked on a series of eight coastal protection studies covering more than 300km of coastline. The studies look at how these areas can be better protected against sea-level rise.

The Climate Impact Science Research Programme will be funded under Singapore's Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan, and will soon begin grant calls for various research projects.