SINGAPORE - Singapore is pushing ahead with ambitious alternative-energy and
conservation campaigns, putting the city state into the vanguard of energy
efficiency and proving that business and environmentalism can profitably mix.
The government's green thrusts range from cutting back on private car use
through taxation, carbon dioxide emission reduction targets, public awareness
campaigns and building regulations aimed at more efficient energy use. Public
finances have been mobilized to support green business research and
development, while new tax and other incentives aim at luring multinational
manufacturers and other service companies breaking ground in the industry.
As with Singapore's past economic development schemes, this one is state-led,
with the government serving as both catalyst and financial driving force. While
there are no doubt noble aspirations behind Singapore's green drive, there is
also a hard-nosed competitive calculation that it will give the country a new
economic edge in a global economy faced with permanently higher oil and gas
prices.
Singapore's government started to view climate change as a serious problem
beginning in early 2006 and has since explored innovative ways to reduce its
carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases thought to be responsible
for global warming. The policy shift is supported by founding prime minister
and current Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who, it is said, takes the climate
change challenge seriously.
Lee already has a pioneering record in environmentally friendly urban planning.
First launched in 1968 and sustained over the following four decades,
Singapore's "garden city" concept aimed, through planting trees, efficient and
affordable public transport and strong anti-pollution, measures to woo foreign
investment while simultaneously softening the edge of rapid urbanization.
Throughout the 1990s, government workgroups implemented green strategies,
including in environmental education, nature conservation and clean
technologies.
The results are most visibly seen in the mature trees and foliage surrounding
Singapore's freeways, the still large swathes of the island that have been left
untouched by development and the better air quality compared with its regional
neighbors. Energy conservation was a policy blind spot, felt in the
city-state's often igloo-like air-conditioned shopping malls and office
buildings. Despite its position as a net-importer of fuels, Singapore seemed
until now to have an unlimited supply of energy to burn - or freeze.
Lee himself opined in a 1999 Asian Wall Street Journal article that he thought
air-conditioning was one of the greatest inventions over the last century
because it enabled worker productivity to increase in tropical climates and
joked that maybe the next breakthrough would be personal air-conditioned suits
or underwear. A decade later and with oil prices at record highs, Singapore's
attitudes about energy efficiency have changed substantially.
Long before the recent spike in global fuel prices, in April 2006 Singapore
ratified the United Nation's Kyoto Accord on climate change, even though as a
developing country it did not face any mandatory emission reduction targets.
But for all intents and purposes, Singapore's is already a developed economy
and an intensive energy user. Its 2006 gross domestic product per capita was
US$31,000.
On a carbon dioxide emissions per capita basis, Singapore's 4.5 million people
are on par with Japan and developed Western European countries, according to
research by the Asia Pacific Energy Research Center in Tokyo. This reflects
Singapore's high level of production and consumption of energy, including the
island-state's large oil refining and petrochemical industries. Over the medium
term, Singapore may face international obligations to cut emissions and the
government has already imposed a national target to reduce carbon intensity to
25% below 1990 levels by 2012.
Environmental profits
One key thrust of the green campaign is to change energy consumer behavior. For
instance, the government has increased the rates of its electronic road pricing
and expanded its application to stem the recent rapid growth of private motor
vehicle use. In a system pioneered by Singapore, gantries strategically placed
around the city register a charge against a pre-paid credit card held in a
sensor inside every privately owned vehicle. More gantries are now being placed
to expand the system's reach.
Public awareness campaigns include new calls to residents to raise their air
conditioning thermostats, while market forces have raised home temperature as
power prices are a direct function of rising global fuel prices. To promote and
celebrate the island state's enhanced environmental consciousness, a new
regular feature program shown on government-owned Channel News Asia, "The
Little Red Dot Goes Green", showcases environmental advances and innovations in
business, industry and households.
Strong profit motives are intertwined with Singapore's green ambitions. The
government now aims to develop the country as a regional research and business
center for clean energy products and financial services such as carbon trading
among corporations. On top of some of the region's lowest corporate tax rates,
Singapore now offers a range of financial and tax incentives for green
corporations, particularly for those that opt to establish regional
headquarters or research and development (R&D)centers.
Germany's Conergy, Europe's largest solar energy company, established its
Asia-Pacific base in Singapore in September 2006 with an eye to expanding its
business in the region. Denmark's Vestas, the world's largest supplier of wind
power systems, also chose Singapore to host its regional headquarters, and
citing the country's location, infrastructure and skilled work force
established an R&D center in 2007. Norway's Renewable Energy Corporation, a
solar energy component manufacturer, is building what it says is the world's
largest integrated solar manufacturing plant in Singapore, with an investment
of over US$4 billion.
Singapore is also becoming involved in producing bio-fuel, though with an
environmentally friendly twist. Government-run Nanyang Technological University
and a Singapore-based logistics firm, Van Der Hoorst, are jointly developing a
200,000 barrel per day bio-diesel plant on Jurong Island. The venture plans
another operation producing 200,000 barrels per day in the neighboring southern
Malaysian state of Johor. Both plants will use as input jatropha curcas,
a hardy plant that can grow on semi-arid land and does not encourage the
deforestation that palm oil plantations have wrought in neighboring Malaysia
and Indonesia.
On the auto industrial front, hydrogen fuel cells to power motor vehicles are
being tested in two programs, one involving DaimlerChrysler and BP and another
a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and a Singaporean consortium known as
Enertek.
Over the past eight years, Singapore has shifted from almost total reliance on
oil to cleaner burning natural gas for its power generation, tapping pipeline
supplies from Indonesia's Sumatra, Malaysia and fields in the South China Sea.
As part of its diversification strategy, which is as political as it is green,
the government in April signed a liquefied natural gas supply contract with
British Gas. While involving a more expensive option than locally piped gas,
the deal ensures the island state will not be as susceptible to political or
technical hiccups in regional supplies.
Spiraling global fuel prices and climate change concerns have pushed
Singapore's commercial drive to tap new energy supplies and consumption
choices. As the island state's mix of capitalism and environmentalism comes
into closer view, it's not inconceivable that it serves as a state-led model
for other countries in the region grappling with the same energy and
environmental challenges.
Andrew Symonis a Singapore-based writer,
researcher and consultant specializing in energy
and resources. He may be reached at andrew.symon@yahoo.com.sg.
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