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MELBOURNE: What organizations would you look for as allies in the fight against climate change?
Climate activist groups, foundations, and even a handful of companies involved in sustainability may come to mind.
But here’s something to ponder: what about the military?
The ongoing fight against COVID-19 has made it seem like a lifetime ago that the Minister of Defense, Dr. Ng Eng Hen, unveiled a series of environmental measures that the Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) and the Armed Forces Singapore State Council (SAF) will adopt to do their bit for climate change in Parliament in March.
But these daring plans portend a green future for these men in green. The announced initiatives range from simple waste reduction measures, including recycling food waste into energy, to more ambitious plans that seek to replace the SAF’s 400 administrative vehicles with hybrid and eventually electric models to reduce carbon emissions.
The Republic of Singapore Navy is also looking at hybrid propulsion for its future ships, which, according to Dr. Ng, has the added benefit of greater energy efficiency, as well as reducing its carbon footprint.
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The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is also doing its part, with a newly built hangar at Changi East Air Base for its Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport which will be the first net positive energy aircraft hangar. in Singapore.
According to MINDEF, the solar panels on the roof of the new hangar can generate up to 1,225 MWh of electricity per year, or 30% more electricity than it consumes. The additional energy generated will be directed to other buildings where the air base will be used.
Other features of the hangar include the use of sustainable materials in its construction, a rainwater harvesting system, the use of natural ventilation and energy-efficient LED lighting.
The hangar, which was designed by the Defense Science and Technology Agency, won the Green Mark Platinum (Positive Energy) award from the Building and Construction Authority for its green features.
The hangar uses energy efficient lighting. (Photo: Aqil Haziq Mahmud)
The hangar will be one of several “green” buildings that MINDEF already has in service, with more on the way. The new hangar at Changi East follows a previous hangar at Paya Lebar, which won the Green Mark Gold Plus award in 2015.
This is the second highest level of the award. One of the criteria for winning includes a requirement to achieve at least 25 percent savings on utilities compared to a “non-green” equivalent.
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JUST DOING YOUR PART FOR SINGAPORE
These initiatives revealed by MINDEF are their contribution to a government-wide plan to go green. As Dr. Ng said in his speech, the threat of climate change is something “for which the SAF may not be primarily responsible, but it must join the efforts (to fight) for the safety and security of Singapore.”
Such efforts illustrate the fact that armies do not exist in a vacuum and will have to do their part to achieve national goals.
Singapore has previously pledged to cut its absolute carbon emissions after 2030 and cut it in half by 2050.
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It’s also worth noting that Singapore’s carbon footprint is large for its size, with estimates that it contributes 0.11 percent of global emissions despite having only 0.0005 percent of the world’s land. .
While it is difficult to see how Singapore can reduce its dependence on the heavy industries that contribute most of the country’s greenhouse gases, including the oil and gas industry, there is no question that Singapore sees a need to reduce its carbon footprint as a responsible global player. , with everyone doing their part.
Using renewable energy sources like solar energy would be a good starting point.
Given that 95 percent of Singapore’s electricity is generated by stations that run on natural gas, there is room to embrace the use of solar energy and other forms of renewable energy to meet electricity needs, with new goals to increase solar capacity. installed more than seven times. from current levels to reach a peak of 2 gigawatts in 2030.
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Solar panels are seen here on the roof of an office building in Singapore. (File photo: AFP / Roslan Rahman)
But the SAF also has a large land footprint and knows it can do better with base and camp design. In addition to the RSAF green hangars, Dr. Ng also revealed that MINDEF has commissioned net zero energy buildings at Kranji and Seletar camps, and by the end of this financial year, buildings at 12 SAF camps will be equipped with solar panels.
These initiatives will be a start in making a dent in Singapore’s carbon emissions, a whopping 52.5 million tonnes in 2017 alone.
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BEING GREEN HAS DEFENSE UTILITY
For the military, learning to live “off the grid (electric)” is a good thing. In times of conflict, national disaster or even a cyberattack, access to the national electricity grid or fuel could be affected while the SAF still has to fulfill its functions.
The US military learned this during its time in Iraq and Afghanistan, when it found that adopting solar energy to power its sometimes isolated bases reduced its dependence on diesel, reducing the risk of attack on road convoys carrying the fuel. fuel.
Singapore could face a similar conundrum during an emergency. In 2018, Singapore imported 9.96 million tons of oil equivalent to natural gas, of which 71.4 percent came from Indonesia and Malaysia.
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However, the supply of the former is due to end in 2023, and the use of LNG brought in by ships is expected to increase in proportion to 50 percent by the middle of this decade.
Given the known vulnerability of the maritime communication lines around Singapore, it is prudent to assume that an uninterrupted supply of fuel such as LNG and petroleum products cannot be guaranteed in a crisis, and the SAF, like all Singaporeans, cannot assume that there are no restrictions. access to electricity or fuel in difficult times.
MORE MILITARY GOING GREEN
The drive to go green is not limited to the Singapore military. Several military leaders have stated that climate change is the greatest challenge their forces will face or a variation of it, including the US and Australia, whose national governments have at times been susceptible to bouts of climate skepticism or outright denial.
Australian firefighters are seen trying to protect homes around Charmhaven, New South Wales, from wildfires. (Photo: Twitter @ NSWRFS via AP)
Most of these concerns are motivated by calculations of the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters to which the armed forces must respond.
The Chief of the Australian Defense Force, General Angus Campbell, noted in 2019 that Australia’s military capabilities could be expanded if it were to undertake more humanitarian aid efforts as a result of climate change causing more frequent and damaging natural disasters.
The Australian military deployed 3,000 personnel to support the cyclone relief effort in the north of the country earlier that year, double the number of troops it had in Afghanistan at the height of Australia’s combat deployment in support of coalition forces.
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There is also no doubt that militaries around the world are questioning the sustainability of continuing a ‘business as usual’ approach to using fossil fuels and the accompanying carbon emissions, and realizing that something has what to change.
According to a 2017 report from the US Department of Defense, the US military nearly doubled its renewable energy generation between 2011 and 2015, to 10.534 billion British thermal units, or enough to power around 286,000 average American households.
The US military also nearly tripled the number of individual renewable energy programs during this period to nearly 1,400, most of them on US military bases.
A good example of this is Fort Hood in Texas, the largest US military base on US soil.
The sprawling base reported in 2017 that it had increased its use of renewable energy compared to fossil fuels, with 63,000 off-base solar panels and wind turbines covering nearly half of its energy needs, compared to just 23. percent in 2015. The US Army estimates that this will generate more than US $ 100 million (S $ 138.87 million) in savings over 30 years.
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In Asia, the South Korean military is also doing the same with a goal of increasing its use of renewable energy sources to 25 percent by 2030, which is higher than the government’s goal of 20 percent for the country in your set.
The renewable energy will come from photovoltaic panels on bases, military land and rooftops of other facilities, while some barracks will be equipped with geothermal heating and cooling systems.
There is also an ongoing effort around the world to experiment with the use of biofuels in military ships and aircraft, to find a suitable blend that is sustainable but without negatively impacting engine performance.
An RSAF A330 multi-purpose tanker refueling an F-16 during exercise Forging Saber in the US (Photo: MINDEF)
In general, armies tend to be one of the largest contributors to emissions through the burning of fossil fuels, but are potentially some of the hardest hit by a supply disruption.
As solar energy becomes more affordable and the battery storage technologies used to store energy from renewable sources improve, the trend for armies to go green will only accelerate, which is a welcome development that should be welcomed.
Mike Yeo is the Asia reporter for the US-based defense publication Defense News.
