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In this Explainer, find out…
How do carbon scorecards work?
Why does Singapore need a carbon scorecard?
What lessons can Singapore draw from other countries with carbon scorecard programmes?
Introduction
Global environmental consciousness has substantially risen over the past years. In 2019, a National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) commissioned a survey and found that 94.9 per cent of respondents were aware of the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming.’¹
With an increasing realisation of the long-term impact that human activities have on nature, people are taking conscious measures to minimise their carbon footprint and lead a sustainable lifestyle. This means reducing the total amount of greenhouse gases an individual produces through personal consumption. This heightened awareness has resulted in a surge of interest in adopting eco-friendly practices to mitigate the harmful impact of greenhouse gases on our planet.
A carbon scorecard is one such potential practice. Carbon scorecards are useful tools for evaluating the environmental impact of individuals, households, and companies.² This evaluation is based on various metrics such as water usage, energy consumption and food waste which help to calculate the carbon footprint of an individual or household. Based on this, they are assigned a score. Through this score, individuals and households can understand their environmental impact and change their daily activities to reduce their carbon footprint.
This Policy Explainer will explore the relevance of carbon scorecards to Singapore. It will look at some motivations for introducing a carbon scorecard locally, highlight scorecard programmes from elsewhere, and discuss what makes implementing a carbon scorecard in Singapore more or less challenging.
Empowering Singapore for a Sustainable Future
Need for Shifts in Consumer Behaviour
Consumers play a crucial role in driving the transition towards an environmentally-friendly economy.³ This requires consumers to be carbon literate, i.e., by understanding the carbon impact of their consumption choices. By being aware of the carbon footprint of products and services they use, consumers can make informed decisions and choose options that emit less carbon. This can help reduce overall carbon emissions and contribute to a cleaner, healthier planet.
In Singapore, there are currently several channels available for citizens to gain insights into their energy and water consumption patterns. For example, the Singapore Power App allows households to track their energy consumption.⁴ However, there seems to be a lack of viable options when it comes to understanding their carbon footprint concerning food, transportation or other purchases.
Even with energy and water usage, it can be challenging for individuals to fully comprehend the environmental impact of their actions due to the abstract nature of carbon footprint calculations. It is often difficult to visualise one’s carbon footprint, let alone become carbon literate and make informed changes to their habits and choices. The proposed carbon scorecard would allow for individuals to make more informed decisions.
Local Calls for a Comprehensive Carbon Scorecard
Local professors like Sumit Agarwal and Alberto Salvo have proposed the adoption of carbon scorecards in Singapore.⁵ Their proposal involves leveraging digital transaction data to create a carbon scorecard based on an individual's purchasing patterns. This scorecard would account for the carbon footprint of all products purchased, with higher-impact items resulting in a lower score. For example, someone who frequently purchases beef would likely have a less favourable carbon score due to the high carbon footprint associated with beef production. Drawing from the recent increase in the carbon tax, the professors suggested that carbon rebates can be introduced for those with better (lower) carbon scores.⁶
However, the professors acknowledge that there are challenges to implementing this plan, including administrative hurdles and data privacy concerns. Additionally, not all transactions are conducted digitally, meaning that some purchases may not be captured in the data used to generate the carbon scorecard. Despite these challenges, the professors believe that the benefits of a carbon scorecard system could be significant and are working to address the obstacles that must be overcome to make this plan a reality. A comprehensive carbon scorecard is an idea in the making. It would thus be wise for Singapore to look abroad and learn from any existing scorecard programmes.
The Victorian Residential Efficiency Scorecard
A ‘universal’ carbon scorecard — one that considers the carbon footprint of all consumption choices — would be the most ideal for helping Singaporeans make informed choices based on their carbon footprint. However, given that no country has been able to develop one yet, the next best alternative is an energy efficiency scorecard similar to the Victorian Residential Efficiency Scorecard (Victorian scorecard).
The Victorian scorecard was introduced in the Australian state of Victoria to rate energy efficiency in homes and provide advice on improving it.⁷ Energy efficiency in homes is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, which allows households to make more informed decisions on upgrades that can lower the energy consumption of their homes.⁸
To access their Victorian scorecard, households first submit a request to have their homes assessed. Then, government-accredited assessors visit the household for an evaluation, before providing information on the household’s energy consumption during summer and winter (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Victorian Residential Efficiency Scorecard⁹
Comparisons to similar housing types are also provided for better sensing of the average energy consumption patterns in such households, alongside tips on improving energy efficiency by the assessors.¹⁰
Discussion
By looking at the Victorian scorecard, we can understand why Singapore is well-suited for a carbon scorecard and some challenges we might face. We can also learn how a carbon scorecard should best be constructed to change households’ behaviour.
What Makes Singapore Suitable for Carbon Scorecard Adoption?
First, Singapore already collects a lot of data needed to create a ‘limited’, utilities-based carbon scorecard. Today, households can already access extensive information about their monthly energy consumption the Singapore Power App (SP App). The SP App even allows households to estimate their carbon footprint by manually inputting data on electricity, water, and food consumption into a calculator.¹¹ These functions provide a foundation for developing a universal carbon scorecard as regulators can leverage this existing technology to calculate a household’s carbon footprint and assign scores.
Second, Singapore’s lack of seasons makes a carbon scorecard much easier to implement relative to most other countries. For example, Australia’s Victorian scorecard must account for seasonal variations in electricity consumption since electricity needs differ over summer and winter (e.g., cooling vs. heating). To this end, it becomes more difficult for an overall carbon score to be given, since electricity usage and thus carbon emissions will spike during certain times of the year while dipping during others. Meanwhile, Singapore does not need to account for these seasonal variations, which makes households’ energy usage fairly consistent throughout the year. Therefore, it is easier to determine the ‘average’ carbon emissions of households, simplifying the process of grading a household’s emissions.
What Challenges Might Singapore Face?
So far, we have discussed how Singapore might be suitable for a utilities-based carbon scorecard. However, local proponents have advocated for creating a ‘universal’ carbon scorecard which includes the carbon footprint of other consumption choices like food and transport usage.
As previously mentioned, this would come with its share of administrative challenges. In particular, Professor Agarwal highlights that significant time and effort must be invested in calculating individual carbon scores. This was based on a pilot for carbon scores, where the transaction data of 200,000 people was procured and analysed. Even more challenging is the issue of data privacy. Singaporeans may not be willing to hand over their transaction data, making the construction of a scorecard impossible.¹²
Even if ‘universal’ carbon scorecards can be created, they may not lead to behavioural changes among citizens. For one, existing attempts to gamify emissions reduction have been unsuccessful in doing so thus far. The SP App allows for the gamification of emissions reduction under their “GreenUP” function, allowing users to win vouchers if they complete challenges.¹³ These challenges include reducing utility usage, using a reusable shopping bag, or charging an electric vehicle. However, this does not seem to have had a large impact on household behaviour, demonstrating that gamification alone cannot motivate resource conservation.
Alternatively, taxation may be leveraged to incentivise behavioural change.¹⁴ However, this can make the scorecard seem punitive. Finally, incentives like tax rebates may be explored but will require significant government funds to be invested. All this emphasises the significant obstacles Singapore faces should it choose to implement this policy.
What can Singapore Learn?
Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to consider how a carbon scorecard could be presented to encourage households to reduce their carbon footprint.
In conversation with us, Professor Agarwal stated that ignorance was a key reason for households’ unwillingness to change. Households have information about the negative impact of their choices and have been offered incentives to change,¹⁵ yet choose not to. This could be attributed to the lack of specific information given to households on how to improve. General information is always available, but if it is possible to identify the most pressing areas of energy inefficiency, households may be willing to act. This interview highlighted that in addition to a score, actionable feedback is a key part of changing households’ behaviour.
The importance of feedback is also highlighted via the Victorian scorecard. Feedback was given at every stage of the process: when the assessor made the initial visit, and in the scorecard itself. This feedback could include information about how households could reduce their energy bills or potential options to use more electricity instead of gas. This feedback does seem to be effecting real change in Victoria. Though emissions from household gas usage are still highest in Victoria among all Australian states, per capita emissions in Victoria have decreased and are below the national average as of 2021.¹⁶ This offers suggestive evidence that detailed suggestions on how to improve are necessary to get consumers to change their behaviour.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Singaporeans have access to channels that provide information on their energy and water consumption patterns. However, there is a lack of options to help them understand how other consumption choices, such as food or transportation, impact their carbon footprint. Even with energy and water usage, individuals may find it challenging to fully comprehend the environmental impact of their actions due to the abstract nature of carbon footprint calculations.
The Victorian scorecard is an innovative programme that Singapore can learn from to encourage environmentally friendly consumption activities. However, we must be mindful that Singapore has its own unique set of circumstances when it comes to carbon footprint measurement and management. Thus, any scorecard implemented in Singapore would need to be tailored to the local context.
This Policy Explainer was written by members of MAJU. MAJU is an independent, youth-led organisation that focuses on engaging Singaporean youths in a long-term research process to guide them in jointly formulating policy ideas of their own.
By sharing our unique youth perspectives, MAJU hopes to contribute to the policymaking discourse and future of Singapore.
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