Commentary: NDR 2026 – if Singapore can plan 50 years ahead for infrastructure, can it do the same for nature?

Moving engagement upstream could allow different possibilities and their consequences to be considered more strategically.

Marine scientists, nature groups, island communities and their descendants, recreational users, industry and the wider public could be engaged while alternatives are still being examined. Baseline environmental information could be made accessible, and Singaporeans could be shown not simply a preferred proposal, but the different options being considered, the needs they are intended to meet, and their respective consequences.

This should include greater clarity about the assumptions underpinning the western island itself. What are Singapore’s projected energy, industrial and infrastructure needs over the next 30 to 50 years? How much additional land would different scenarios require, and when?

Which technologies and industries are being planned for, and how certain are those assumptions given the pace of technological change? Could some needs be met through existing industrial land, redevelopment, greater land-use efficiency or different energy pathways? And what would happen if some of the most ecologically sensitive areas were taken off the table from the outset?

MND has said it will “engage stakeholders early to listen to their inputs before studies and work commence”.

Public participation does not mean every preference must be adopted, nor does it remove the government’s responsibility to make difficult decisions in the national interest. But participation is most meaningful when there are still real choices to influence.

Singapore has earned an international reputation for planning infrastructure decades ahead. The western island offers an opportunity to apply the same long-term thinking to our natural environment.

If we are planning Singapore’s energy and economic infrastructure 50 years into the future, we should plan the future of its ecological infrastructure over the same horizon.

Melissa Low is Head of NUS Sustainability Academy and Research Fellow at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, National University of Singapore. The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not represent the views and opinions of NUS.