How Vulnerable is Singapore to Climate Change?

In light of recent extreme weather worldwide being associated with climate change, external pageAssistant Professor Winston Chowcall_made discussed Singapore’s susceptibility to the impacts of climate change in a commentary in The Straits Times. In the article external pageHow vulnerable is Singapore to climate change?call_made he also mentioned the contribution of the Cooling Singapore project in mitigating Singapore's urban heat island effect at a local scale.

While Singapore is lucky to escape the drastic impacts of extreme weather such as heatwaves, wildfires and droughts that have plagued many parts of the world as a result of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Prof. Chow identified GHG emissions and the local urban heat island (UHI) effect as causes of Singapore's rising temperatures. In mostly urbanised Singapore, the UHI effect is caused by buildings, road surfaces, and other infrastructure retaining heat and then releasing large amounts of heat.

Prof. Chow believes that integrated climate-sensitive urban design involving multiple stakeholders is a good way to reduce Singapore’s vulnerability to heat. He mentioned Cooling Singapore as an initiative that contributes towards the reduction of heat in Singapore.

Asst Prof. Chow is one of the principal investigators of  external pageCooling Singaporecall_made The project aims to mitigate the UHI effect in Singapore togther with stakeholders in government, the research community, and private sector, and to improve outdoor thermal comfort in Singapore.

The article appeared on The Straits Times on 6 September. Access the article external pageherecall_made.