Patriots thread.

What a load of nonsense. Any car in the background will emit more pollutants in a minute of engine operation than I do in an hour.

Car buyers in Singapore must pay an excise duty and registration fee of 150% of the market value of the vehicle. They must also apply for a limited number of government permits, called COEs (Certificate of Entitlement – a permit program to reduce the number of private cars in the country), which allow them to use the car for 10 years. The cost of such a permit can cover the purchase of a new Porsche Boxster in the USA or a C-Class Mercedes in Hong Kong, where air pollution has reached record levels.

The Singapore Ministry of Transport has reduced the number of permits issued, holding auctions twice a month, bringing the price of the so-called open-category COE (for vehicles of any size) to 93,990 Singapore dollars (data from November 2012). After the COE expires, the vehicle owner must apply for a new 10-year permit, export the car, or scrap it. The number of COE quotas can be found on the website of the Singapore Ministry of Transport.

Data shows that air pollution levels in Singapore over the past five years have been 88% lower than the permissible pollution level set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. During the same period, air pollution levels in Hong Kong exceeded the permissible level by 12%.