Proposal for New Ministry to Coordinate Singapore's Energy Needs, Decarbonisation Pathways, Grid Resilience and International Negotiations

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance given Singapore's rapid energy transition efforts and rising electricity demand from AI adoption, data centres, advanced semiconductor and high-performance computing activities, as well as growing EV consumer demand, whether the Government will consider establishing a Ministry for Energy to coordinate long-term and operational energy needs, decarbonisation pathways, grid resilience and international energy negotiations.

Mr Gan Kim Yong (for the Prime Minister): Striking the right balance between security, affordability and sustainability in our energy system is a key priority for the Government. Today, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), with its statutory board the Energy Market Authority, directly oversees energy matters and works closely with the rest of the Government to manage our energy transition.

To better organise the Government to accelerate Singapore's transition to cleaner energies, the Prime Minister designated Minister Dr Tan See Leng as the Minister-in-charge of Energy last year. MTI has also appointed a Permanent Secretary and a Deputy Secretary to oversee policies relating to energy and decarbonisation. MTI set up a new Energy and Carbon cluster in April 2024 to co-ordinate efforts across the whole-of-Government and build the requisite capabilities. Currently, the Government has no plan to set up a separate Ministry of Energy, but we will continue to make refinements to how this work is organised, as its scale and complexity grow in the years ahead.