A Low-Carbon City

Singapore’s infrastructure will become cleaner and greener to achieve net-zero emissions by or around mid-century.

Last updated 28 May 2026

Decarbonising and diversifying our energy supply

Our city will be sustainably powered through cleaner energy and smarter grids.

In the early 2000s, we replaced fuel oil with natural gas, which is the cleanest form of fossil fuel, as the primary fuel for electricity generation. As part of Singapore’s energy transition towards greater sustainability, we will decarbonise our energy supply with cleaner energy sources and by enhancing our grid with digital technologies.

Diagram of a regional power grid with geothermal, wind, solar, and hydrogen energy sources, plus electric vehicles and a control center.

Solar power

Solar is the most promising renewable energy option for sunny Singapore. We will increase solar deployment on our rooftops, reservoirs, offshore waters and even on our building facades to overcome our land constraints.

Regional power grids

We are working with regional partners to co-develop and import low-carbon electricity through enhanced grid connections and power trading arrangements. Electricity imports will complement domestic generation to form part of Singapore’s overall energy mix.

Emerging low-carbon alternatives

We will continue to explore emerging alternative energy supply options to determine their suitability for Singapore.

Low-carbon hydrogen is one such option, which we will have to adapt our infrastructure to support. Other alternatives that are being explored include geothermal and nuclear energy.

As recommended by the Energy 2050 Committee Report, further research and capability development are being conducted to enable Singapore to adopt these alternatives if we find these feasible and decide to deploy them in the future.

Smart grid

Our energy grid will be enhanced to support our increasingly complex power systems, while maintaining grid reliability. For instance, we will use digital technology to optimise our grid's design, planning, and operation, to better manage and integrate electricity drawn from cleaner but intermittent sources such as solar power.

Moving towards a regenerative built environment

Future developments in the city will not only minimise damage to the environment but could heal and revitalise it too.

Our built environment will go beyond minimising damage to the environment to revitalising it. With policies such as the Green Mark certification scheme which we will continue to update, sustainability will be at the core of our entire building lifecycle, be it for new developments or the retrofitting of existing ones.

We will continue studying ways to rehabilitate our buildings and give them a new lease of life where viable. This includes exploring the possibility of adaptive reuse to meet future needs thereby extending the useful lifespan of our buildings.

Other healthier environments for users

Besides shelter, our buildings can be designed to support the mental, physical, and sociological well-being of the occupants.

Apartment complex with tall, modern buildings surrounded by lush green trees under a blue sky.

One example is Punggol Point Crown which has a well-shaded facade with living room and bedroom spaces designed for unobstructed air flow. The estate also has extensive greenery to connect residents with nature.

Energy efficient

Rendering of a modern high-rise building with greenery and a riverfront view, silhouetted by other skyscrapers.

Our buildings can produce as much electricity as they consume, and others may even generate surpluses that can be fed back into the power grid. Adopting tropical architecture designs can also help buildings perform better in our climate.

For instance, the upcoming 80 Anson Road will harvest some 30 per cent of its energy consumption in the common areas from solar photovoltaic systems. The residential tower will also incorporate lush landscaped decks and shading devices to reduce the building’s heat gain.

Equipped with smart technologies

Bright, modern office space with people working, walking on a staircase, and a long desk near a large window.

Buildings can be equipped with smart management systems to track resource consumption and optimise performance.

For instance, lights at the Keppel Bay Tower adjust according to occupancy as well as the availability of daylight across all seven floors of the office tower. The fully autonomous system is over 10 per cent more energy saving than LED lightings.

Constructed with sustainable materials

By using more sustainable and low-carbon materials such as recycled materials or carbon dioxide mineralised aggregates, we can reduce the overall lifecycle carbon footprint of our buildings and even sequester carbon.

Integrated with nature

Our building sites will also seek to restore nature in our urban landscape. By encouraging the creation of habitat pockets through the provision of wild landscape areas, we can retain or even enhance ecological connectivity.

Built for maintainability

Designing for ease of upkeeping minimises the unnecessary use of resources over a building’s entire lifecycle. Incorporating smart facilities management technologies enables predictive maintenance and supports a resource-efficient maintenance regime.

Closing our resource loops

Our water loop will remain closed, and we will work towards closing other resource loops too

As our city grows, we tend to consume more resources. We will plan and invest in infrastructure to close our resource loops, such as waste and water, to ensure Singapore continues to develop in a sustainable and resilient manner.

Reimagining our waste

Semakau Landfill is Singapore’s only operational offshore landfill and will be exhausted by 2035 at current waste disposal rates.

Aerial view of an island with a lake, forest, and road.

Enhancing our waste infrastructure for greater resource recovery and developing creative synergies will extend the lifespan of Semakau and could even allow it to be put to other uses one day.

Diagram of a circular economy, showing production, consumption, waste management, and recycling loops.

Waste-to-Energy (WTE) facilities

Did you know that two per cent of Singapore electricity is generated from the incineration of waste? To reduce the need for landfill space, we incinerate our waste at WTE facilities before the ashes are disposed of in Semakau Landfill. The electricity generated from this process is used to power the WTE facilities, with the excess electricity exported to the national grid.

NEWSand

While incinerating our waste reduces its original volume by up to 90 per cent, the resulting ash still takes up precious landfill space. We are developing ways to turn it into construction material such as NEWSand. This has been successfully deployed in demonstration projects, including the concrete plaza at the Environment Building and a trial in the construction of some stretches of Tanah Merah Coast Road.

A more resilient water supply

Singapore’s water use is expected to grow in tandem with our economic growth. To ensure a sustainable supply of water, we have developed a robust and diversified supply of water known as “Four National Taps” - local catchment water, imported water, NEWater (recycled water) and desalinated water.

Our holistic approach to water management is based on three key strategies:

Collect every drop of water

Some two-thirds of our land already serve as water catchment. Good planning has helped ensure most rainwater that falls on Singapore is channelled through drains, canals, rivers, and ponds to our 17 reservoirs for storage. We will continue to develop ways to capture even more of our rainwater.

Desalinate seawater

As Singapore is surrounded by seawater, desalination is a natural option. Currently, we have five desalination plants including the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant, which is the first to treat either seawater or freshwater from the Marina Reservoir depending on weather conditions.

Diagram of the water cycle in urban environments, showing sourcing and treatment.

It is also designed as a public recreational space, offering some 20,000-square metres of green rooftop space.

Reuse water endlessly

Our Deep Tunnel Sewerage System allows for efficient, large-scale water recycling, thus further building our water resilience.

Aerial view of Gardens by the Bay East park in Singapore, featuring green spaces and the city skyline.

It will collect and convey used water entirely via gravity to three centralised treatment plants that are strategically located at coastal areas. The treated water is reclaimed and further purified into NEWater. This underground superhighway for used water will halve the land currently occupied by used water infrastructure.

As we expand our water infrastructure to meet rising demand, our ambition is to achieve net zero emissions in our operations. By installing floating solar photovoltaic systems on our reservoirs, we can ensure that they serve not only as water catchment and storage but for generating clean electricity too.

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