Singapore  - Singapore was hotter last year than the average for the last 50 years, with temperatures averaging 27.5 degrees Celsius, 0.6 degrees Celsius higher than average, The Straits Times reported Saturday.

The report cited the National Environment Agency (NEA) as saying that it was difficult to determine how much of the upward trend in temperature was due to global warming and how much was caused by the city state's rapid development and urbanization over the past 30 years. "But the trend is consistent with rising global temperature levels," a NEA spokesman was quoted as saying.

local experts pointed out that the increase in temperature in Singapore was slightly larger than the global average, probably as a result of the island being more vulnerable to global emissions.

Singapore could also suffer from rising sea levels caused by global warming because of its small land size and flat terrain, it said.

"The increased probability of flooding and coastal erosion as well as saltwater intrusion into fresh water reservoirs are some of the possible consequences," Associate Professor Matthias Roth of the National University of Singapore was quoted as saying.

Singapore's contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions as a result of economic activity in 2006 was 41.6 megatonnes, less than 0.2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, the report said.

Singapore has made conscious efforts to reduce carbon emissions to 0.20 kilotonnes per million dollars of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 from 0.28 kilotonnes per million dollars of GDP in 1990, according to the report. Singapore has switched its power generation fuel to natural gas from fuel oil and has implemented initiatives for improving energy efficiency in various sectors of the economy. (dpa)