Singapore, proud green city
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. |