Singapore: Beautiful Monster

Singapore in tough environmental balancing act
By Ee Mien Low

channelnewsasia.com :

Singapore prides itself on being a clean and green city but a booming economy and a high-consumption lifestyle have made it one of the world's biggest carbon polluters per person. Singapore's green credentials are strong and it is establishing itself as a regional renewable energy hub. Yet, if all Asians emulated Singaporeans' modern and often luxurious lifestyles, greenhouse gas emissions would spike alarmingly. "If everyone in the world enjoyed the same level of consumption as the average Singaporean, we would need three planets to meet the demands placed on our resources," WWF spokesman Chris Chaplin said. Singapore was listed by Maplecroft as the world's 7th largest CO2 emitter relative to its population size. Ahead of it were only UAE, Australia, the US, Canada, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

Despite a punishing auto levy and road charges, the number of motor vehicles in Singapore reached 925,518 in 2009, up more than 27% in 5 years. Singapore authorities insist that the country has no choice but to rely on imported fossil fuel. With an area smaller than New York City, Singapore has no space for wind power, and is devoid of hydro and geothermal power sources. Nevertheless, the Singapore government is committed to the fight against climate change. Singapore is investing heavily in clean energy and is building an LNG terminal that will be ready by 2013. It is also pushing its people to do more recycling, doubling its rail network by 2020 andtesting electric vehicles for commercial use. In addition, Norway's REC opened one of the world's biggest solar manufacturing facilities in Singapore in Nov 2010, costing nearly $2 billion, and Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas already has a global R&D centre there.

Whenever I go to places like Malacca, Malaysia for short breaks, I am reminded of how a society's choices have an impact on resource and energy usage. I was discussing just this with a colleague not too long ago. He had remarked that the buildings in Malaysia, ah, not to put too fine a point to it, generally are not quite as well maintained as those in Singapore. My take on that was it was their people's choice, and looking at it from a Peak Oil and/or environmental perspective, that may not be such a bad thing. After all, that means lower maintenance cost, and reduced demand for resources and energy. I doubt many of my colleagues and friends see it that way. Actually, I kind of doubt that even those in Malaysia see it that way.

Conversely, a look around the Singapore of end-2010 looks to me like one of those resource-intensive, high-energy usage scenarios of the future : shiny new buildings, brand new cars, newly paved roads, bright lights everywhere. Shopping malls completely decked out with seasonal decorations, supermakets full of food from all over the world. As for the supermarkets, their motto could well have been something along the lines of "it's always in season somewhere". Oranges from California. Apples from New Zealand. Mangoes from Pakistan. Peakoilers often talk about "3000-mile Caesar salads". How about 10,000-mile chickens from Brazil? Or a brand called "Air Pork" that is imported from Australia - no prizes for guessing how it gets here to Singapore. You really can't make this stuff up.

In recent times, it has been apparent to me that even though I am continuing to track my own country's attmpted progress in bringing in electric cars, putting up solar panels, inviting clean energy companies to setup shop here, the pace of economic growth and hence resource usage seems to have completely outstripped these efforts. It is always a fine balance between economic growth and ecological preservation, and we don't really seem to have found it - yet. But at least we should try to work towards it.


Culled from: http://theenergycollective.com/sklowem/48809/singapore-tough-environmental-balancing-act?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+(all+posts)

NUTSHELL:

Singapore seems to be a ''beautiful monster''; a darling of modernization and development while causing significant environmental concerns for the planet. Notwithstanding the constraints of necessity imposed by the range of energy options, the country has tried to disincentivise some carbon emission behaviour; nonetheless development and growth must take place-albeit at an environmental cost. Like Ne-Yo said: "she's a beautiful monster....and I don't mind!"