APCEL Student Outreach Pilot: Singapore Chinese Girls’ School

On 6 September 2022, APCEL held the second pilot session of our student outreach programme. 42 Secondary School students from Singapore Chinese Girls’ School’s Science and Environment Club were invited to the NUS Law campus for an interactive workshop on environmental law in the international community and in Singapore.

The workshop began with a spread of refreshments, which were deliberately served in a sustainable manner – students actively participated in bringing their own reusable containers and cups. Dr. Jolene Lin (APCEL Director) then initiated a round of introductions and delivered a warm welcome speech.

Selene Tanne (APCEL Research Assistant) kicked off group discussions by having the students calculate their carbon footprint and brainstorm about the significance of law and policy in tackling environmental issues.

Following that interactive segment, Dr. Linda Yanti Sulistiawati (Senior Research Fellow, APCEL; Associate Professor, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia) taught the students about the basics of international law and how international treaties work. She then tied that to how international environmental law is directly transposed or indirectly implemented in individual countries (e.g., Singapore) to meet the goals and/or requirements set out by international environmental treaties. She also talked about her experience as one of the lead authors of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), demonstrating how science, law, policy, and international relations could intersect in reality.

Kanika Jamwal (PhD candidate, NUS Law) and Dr. Sroyon Mukherjee (APCEL Research Fellow) then introduced the students to specific case studies. Kanika used the 1994 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to demonstrate how international problems and goals are addressed through treaties, and Sroyon used the Deepwater Horizon oil spill case to explain how environmental treaties and laws are used in real-life cases.

Selene returned to share about how Singapore is using policy and regulatory instruments under the Singapore Green Plan 2030 to meet its environmental goals, including those set out under the Paris Agreement. Nikhil Dutt Sundaraj (Visiting Researcher, APCEL) then presented a case study on the recent chicken shortage in Singapore, illustrating the slew of environmental laws and issues that intersect in just this one issue.

To conclude, the students played an exciting trivia game of KAHOOT, competing in groups to show how much they had remembered from the session. They were enthusiastic and the winning team walked away with a prize: reusable NUS face masks. The students were then led on a tour of the NUS Law campus by Julia Liaw (undergraduate research assistant, APCEL).

In response to our pilot, we received extremely positive feedback from the SCGS students. In particular, they enjoyed how all presenters had distilled complex information into easily understandable snippets, giving them a satisfactory introduction into the workings of international environmental law. The students particularly enjoyed interactive groupwork segments, such as the calculation of their carbon footprints and the final KAHOOT trivia, as these had helped them to understand the connections between individual action and broader responses to environmental problems.

Associate Professor Jolene Lin (Director, APCEL) welcoming the students

Selene Tanne (Research Assistant, APCEL) faciliating the interactive ice breakers and group discussions

The students having group discussions

Dr. Linda Yanti SULISTIAWATI (Senior Research Fellow, APCEL) explaining “International law, UNFCCC, and IPCC”

Nikhil Dutt SUNDARAJ (Visiting Researcher, APCEL) presenting “Environmental laws in Singapore”

Group photo