Visit by Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development, Sam Tan to Tromsø, Norway, for the 14th Arctic Frontiers Conference, 25 to 30 January 2020

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development, Sam Tan is in Tromsø, Norway, to attend the 14th Arctic Frontiers Conference (AFC).

MOS Tan intervened in a plenary session on “Sustainable Arctic Ocean” on 28 January 2020. The panellists discussed ways to mitigate the climate-induced changes taking place in our oceans and cryosphere. The full text of MOS Tan’s intervention is appended.

On the sidelines of the AFC, MOS Tan met Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide, United States Ambassador to Norway Kenneth Braithwaite, and Deputy Minister for Development of the Arctic and the Peoples of the North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Mikhail Pogodaev. MOS Tan also met representatives from the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat and senior Arctic officials from the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

MOS Tan will depart for Singapore today.

.    .    .    .    .

EDITED INTERVENTION BY MINISTER OF STATE,

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND MINISTRY OF SOCIAL AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT, SAM TAN CHIN SIONG

AT THE 14th ARCTIC FRONTIERS CONFERENCE, SESSION IV, “SUSTAINABLE ARCTIC OCEAN”

MONDAY, 28 JANUARY 2020

Question: When you come to an event like this, what is the message you are bringing?

MOS Tan: I think the most important message that I want to bring to the audience is that what happens in the Arctic, does not stay in the Arctic. The converse is also true – what happens outside the Arctic, does not stay outside the Arctic. Singapore is a small island state, and we are surrounded by seas and oceans. On the eastern side, we have the South China Sea; on the western side, we have the Indian Ocean. We have a very small land area of only 720 square kilometres, and one third of this is actually very low-lying. We have 5.7 million people living on this tiny island, and we have literally built our city to the brink of the land. Our people live next to the water. Thus, we are very, very careful with our water management. If we are not careful and we pollute our water bodies, seas and oceans, the consequences will be disastrous for us.

With climate change, a melting Arctic and rising sea levels, Singapore is also in trouble. We have always heard that sea levels will rise by 1 metre within this century. If this happens, our future Prime Minister will have to conduct Cabinet meetings in a scuba diver suit, for we will be submerged underwater! For our survival, we have embarked on an ambitious programme to deal with rising sea levels. We will raise our peripheral and low-lying areas by 2100, and we have decided to set aside more than S$100 billion for all kinds of infrastructure projects to deal with rising sea levels.

We are doing a lot to make sure that we do not contaminate the oceans. We have also been doing a lot to control and reduce our carbon emissions. Even though we are going to have an election either this year or next year first quarter, we introduced a carbon tax that covers all industries with no exemptions. Come 2030, we want to reduce our emissions intensity by 36% from 2005 levels. This is a very painful process. But compared to the pain of Singapore being overrun by seawater, it is a price we think we should pay.

.    .    .    .    .

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

29 JANUARY 2020

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development Sam Tan intervening in the Arctic Frontiers Conference Plenary Session IV – “Sustainable Arctic Ocean”

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development Sam Tan and Non-Resident Ambassador to Norway Tan Wah Yeow with Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development Sam Tan and United States Ambassador to Norway Kenneth Braithwaite

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development Sam Tan with Deputy Minister for Development of the Arctic and the Peoples of the North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Mikhail Pogodaev

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development Sam Tan and Non-Resident Ambassador to Norway Tan Wah Yeow with representatives from the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat

Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development Sam Tan and Non-Resident Ambassador to Norway Tan Wah Yeow with senior Arctic officials from the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs