Singapore Mulls Bonds, Reserves for $72 Billion Climate Fight
Philip Heijmans and Yongchang Chin Bloomberg 21 Aug 19; Singapore is weighing options including the issuance of government bonds to fund the S$100 billion ($72 billion) it could take to fight rising sea levels over the next century. In the short-term, funding for projects such as a S$400 million upgrade to the city-state�s drainage systems to boost flood resilience will come from ministry-level expenditures, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said in an interview on Wednesday. Longer term spending, he said, could require the government to tap its national reserves and issue state bonds. �For those that have to be spent that will benefit future generations, we�re talking about borrowing so that whatever we spend for the future will also be paid for by the future generations,� Masagos told Bloomberg TV�s Haslinda Amin. �S$100 billion is actually a lot of money even if spent over 100 years.� The climate change push was a key prong of Prime Minister Lee Hsi...