Posted: 03 December 2010 1332 hrs
SINGAPORE : 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.
As a major United Nations summit is being held in Mexico to find
ways of curbing the carbon emissions blamed for global warming,
Singapore's environmental balancing act poses challenging questions
for the rest of Asia and the world.
Singapore's green credentials are in many ways very 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," World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
spokesman Chris Chaplin said.
Singapore was last month listed by the British global risk advisory
firm Maplecroft as the world's seventh largest carbon dioxide (CO2)
emitter relative to its population size.
Ahead of it were only the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the
United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
Maplecroft's index was calculated by evaluating annual CO2
emissions from energy use, emissions per capita and cumulative
emissions of a country over more than a century -- 1900 to
2006.
"The lack of 'clean' energy sources coupled with the growth in
Singapore’s economy and the increasing use of cars as well as
electronic appliances such as air-conditioners contribute to
Singapore's emissions," Maplecroft said in a statement to
AFP.
Despite a punishing auto levy and road charges, the number of motor
vehicles on its roads reached 925,518 in 2009, up more than 27
percent in five years, with private cars making up 60 percent of
the total, official figures show.
In a separate list, the WWF ranked Singapore 21st in the world in
terms of ecological footprint, or the demand for resources per
person, ahead of such countries as Germany, France and
Britain.
WWF's calculation covered not only emissions -- the biggest
component of humanity's carbon footprint -- but also demand placed
by people on arable land, fishing grounds, forest and grazing land
worldwide.
Singapore authorities insist, however, that that the country has
had no choice but to rely on imported fossil fuel to power its
rapid industrialisation.
The trade-reliant economy, valued at 200 billion US dollars in
2009, is tipped to expand by a massive 15 percent this year.
With a land area smaller than that of New York City, Singapore has
no space among its five million citizens for wind farms, while it
is devoid of hydro and geothermal power sources.
"We are dependent on fossil fuels because our small size severely
limits our ability to switch to alternative energies," the National
Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement to AFP.
It said Maplecroft's index neither reflected Singapore's efforts to
reduce its carbon emissions nor took into account its unique
circumstances.
"As a small city-state, the use of per capita emissions inflates
our carbon emissions," it said, noting that overall, Singapore
accounts for less than 0.2 percent of global emissions.
Nevertheless, the government said it was committed to the fight
against climate change and was taking steps to reduce the growth of
its emissions, including switching from oil to natural gas to
produce electricity.
Singapore is investing heavily in clean energy technologies -- it
has allocated 770 million dollars to develop innovative energy
solutions -- and is building a liquefied natural gas terminal that
will be ready by 2013.
This will allow access to gas sources beyond neighbouring Indonesia
and Malaysia.
It is also pushing its people to do more recycling, doubling its
already expansive rail network by 2020 and testing electric
vehicles for commercial use.
In another positive move, Singapore has offered itself as a "living
laboratory" where global energy firms can develop and test new
technologies before mass production.
Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC) opened one of the world's
biggest solar technology manufacturing facilities in Singapore in
November, a project costing nearly two billion dollars.
Vestas, a Danish manufacturer of wind turbines, already has a
global research and development centre in the city-state.
"Singapore has been very wise in the way they are approaching
this," REC's chief executive Ole Enger said. "They have made
Singapore a global hub for renewable energy."
- AFP /ls
