SRA-E Lisbon 2017

This paper begins by surveying the interconnected risks that Singapore faces from climate change, ranging from threats to its low-lying critical infrastructure such as airport and financial centre, to resurgence of tropical infectious diseases; dangers to its water supplies and implications for military operations. The paper then moves to examine several developments that the Singapore government has introduced in an attempt to build resilience against climate change risks. These include the establishment of the inter-agency Resilience Working group at the National Climate Change Secretariat, and the introduction of the Resilience Framework in 2012 to guide climate change policies on resilience. The basic underlying governance premise is that a whole-of-society approach is necessary to build resilience against climate change, with the involvement of multiple actors and stakeholders. This approach is derived from a previous long-standing philosophy of Total Defence, which stresses civil, social, economic, psychological and military defence. Based on the hazard-medium-consequence loop proposed in this symposia, while climate change is seen largely as an unintentional threat/hazard, the paper examines how far the medium of response stressed in Singapore governance frameworks comprises behavioural, economic, physical and cognitive components.