SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Joseph Chun, Shook Lin & Bok LLP
• Road Traffic Act 1961 (“RTA”) – regulates vehicu- lar emissions, including by prescribing rebates and taxes for the registration of vehicles based on their vehicular emissions; and offers a rebate on the additional registration fee for electric vehicles registered not later than 2026. • Sewerage and Drainage Act 1999 (“SDA”) – regu- lates discharges of pollutants into public sewers. • Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014 (“THPA”) – regulates activities outside Singapore that cause or contribute to haze pollution in Singapore. • Wildlife Act 1965 (“WA”) – regulates the killing, taking, trapping, keeping, feeding and release of wildlife. • Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006 (“WSHA”) – regulates aspects of environmental risks that may threaten the health and safety of workers, such as exposure to asbestos, HS, hazardous atmospheres in confined spaces, and excessive noise. The key regulatory authorities and bodies responsible for environmental policy and enforcement in Singa- pore include: • Ministry of Manpower (“MOM”); • Ministry of National Development; • Ministry of Sustainability and Environment (“MSE”); • Ministry of Transport; • Building Control Authority (“BCA”); • Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (“CAAS”); • JTC Corporation (“JTC”); • National Climate Change Secretariat; • National Environment Authority (“NEA”); • National Parks Board (“NParks”); • Urban Redevelopment Authority (“URA”); • Land Transport Authority (“LTA”); • Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (“MPA”); • Public Utilities Board (“PUB”); and • Singapore Civil Defence Force (“SCDF”). 2.2 Co-Operation Mechanisms for co-operation with the regulatory authorities include: 2. Enforcement Authorities and Mechanisms 2.1 Regulatory Authorities
• mandatory obligations such as licensing, report- ing/disclosures/monitoring of emissions or energy usage and resource efficiency improvement plans; and on-site inspections by regulators; • administrative collaboration, such as consultation with industry on proposed new environmental leg- islation, such as the CPA and the RSA, and public consultation on environmental impact assessment reports; and • voluntary initiatives such as partnerships (eg, the Packaging Partnership Programme adminis- tered by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (“SMF”) in partnership with NEA to support com- panies in adopting sustainable packaging waste management practices; and the Guidelines on Sustainable E-commerce Packaging developed by the Alliance for Action on Packaging Waste Reduc- tion co-led by the SMF and Singapore Post and supported by NEA, and incentives (eg, Enterprise Singapore’s Energy Efficiency Grant)). 3. Environmental Protections 3.1 Protection of Environmental Assets “Environmental assets” such as air, freshwater and seawater, soil, flora and fauna, natural habitats, and landscapes in Singapore are protected under various legislation administered by different regulators. Air • Air quality is protected through the regulation of air pollutants under the EPMA, which establishes quantitative and qualitative standards. • Vehicular emissions are regulated under the RTA. • Transboundary air pollution from fires outside Singapore is regulated under the TPHA, which is administered by the NEA. Water and Soil • Freshwater and land are protected through licens- ing and discharge standards for the discharge of pollutants into drains and surface and subsurface bodies of water, as administered by the NEA under the EPMA. • Activities in reservoirs and waterways are regulated under the PUA, administered by PUB.
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