[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: After tackling the issue of meeting Singapore’s water needs for the past 50 years, meeting the country’s energy needs in a sustainable way will be the country’s main challenge for the next five decades, said the Minister of Trade and Commerce. Industry, Chan Chun Sing.
Chan was speaking on CNA’s The Climate Conversations podcast.
“When we first became independent, our number one priority was getting enough water for ourselves. And over time, I think our water needs have increased as well. Today, we have practically obtained the technology to purify water, recycle it, etc. But that just turned the dependence on external water supply into one on external power supply, ”said Mr. Chan.
“So I’ve always said that if water has been the challenge for the last 50 years, energy will be our challenge for the next 50 years.”
Chan was responding to a question from CNA Digital editor-in-chief Jaime Ho, who had asked what Singapore’s “energy reset” would entail as defined by the government, and what the nation’s energy transition would look like.
READ: Comment: Why hasn’t solar in Singapore taken off in a big way after so long?
Chan reiterated Singapore’s challenges as an alternative energy disadvantaged nation, with limited access to renewable energy sources.
“The only renewable energy we have is, perhaps, solar, and we have done the calculation, even if we cover every inch of our land and sea surface with solar panels, we still will not be able to generate enough renewable energy for our survival, based on current technology. “, He said.
As such, Singapore needs to continue to find more efficient ways to reduce its energy demand, Mr Chan said.
A CONSTANT CHURCH
As part of efforts to address climate change, Singapore’s goal is to halve its peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by 2050 and achieve net zero emissions “as soon as practicable” in the second half of the century. .
READ: Singapore aims to halve peak emissions by 2050, achieve net zero emissions ‘as soon as practicable’ by second half century
Responding to a question about what Singapore’s energy mix might look like by 2050, Chan said that it will be necessary to increase the share of renewable energy that is part of Singapore’s energy mix.
“We hope we can increase our share of renewable energy, and that depends on a few factors,” he explained.
Solar panels are seen here on the roof of an office building in Singapore. (File photo: AFP / Roslan Rahman)
While Singapore has installed solar panels across the island, it is still insufficient and there needs to be a “breakthrough” in current solar panel technology to allow more power to be generated, Mr. Chan said.
Other solutions include bringing in clean energy from alternative sources, even potentially as far away as Australia, Chan noted.
TRANSFORMATION OF THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY
In light of global trends toward decarbonisation and the move away from fossil fuel-intensive industries like petrochemicals, Chan was asked if there would be longer-term measures in Singapore to reduce the country’s dependence on the sector.
Chan said that Singapore-based oil majors had started making the transition to sustainability some time ago.
“Even before this current word ‘sustainability’ became fashionable in Singapore, that transition … has already started many years ago. If you look at the big oil companies that are present in Singapore, they have already started part of the transition, even before the Paris treaty came along, ”Chan said, referring to the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Chan also spoke about jobs in the sector.
READ: Shell Singapore to reuse its core business and downsize the Pulau Bukom refinery in a low-carbon shift
Shell Singapore said in November last year that it plans to reuse its core business and halve its crude processing capacity at its Pulau Bukom oil refinery, as part of a review on its journey to a low-carbon future.
As part of the transition, Shell would cut 500 jobs by the end of 2023 at the Pulau Bukom site, which now employs 1,300 people, a Shell spokesperson told CNA at the time.
In response to a question about his concerns regarding such developments in the sector, Mr. Chan said that the government process creating jobs for Singaporeans must be continuous.
“If we look at the economy, including the petrochemical industry, there will be a constant turnover. And because Singapore is not the cheapest place to put all their production here, they will always concentrate the highest value-added production in Singapore, because our wages are higher than the rest. Therefore, there will always be a rotation in which some of the lowest paid people could be displaced, ”added Mr. Chan.
“But we are constantly looking to create better jobs for our people at the top of the pay scale, and that should be an ongoing process for us.”
When asked about the jobs available in the green economy, Chan noted that it wasn’t about defining which jobs would constitute clean jobs, but rather about making each job cleaner over time.
“We want every job to be a cleaner job over time. That means the same production, whether it’s pet chemicals (petrochemicals), whether it’s semiconductors (semiconductors, whether it’s biomedical), we want each (one) of our products and processes to be greener, as we move forward, “he said.
“And we want our companies and workers to be able to adopt new technologies to produce cleaner and greener products.
In addition, new growth opportunities can create new jobs in the green industry, Mr. Chan noted.
“We will not set a goal to say that we want ‘X’ number of green jobs because in reality our goal is that every job can become a greener job. And there are many more green jobs that do not yet exist today but that can come over. And if we have the right skills and the right capabilities in our companies, we can take advantage of those opportunities in the face of global competition, “he added.
A MATTER OF MAGNITUDE
Chan also responded to questions about Singapore’s carbon tax.
He agreed that while the carbon tax could be the most “efficient and fair” way to move towards a greener economy, there needs to be a “clear, transparent and fair” carbon price in all areas, including on an international level.
Singapore is planning a carbon tax on facilities like petrochemical plants. (Photo: AFP / Roslan Rahman)
“We all know that Singapore is only a small fraction of the world economy. And while we want to set the right price for carbon externalities, we actually have to act in tandem with the rest of the world, ”he explained.
“In the rest of the world, there are many countries with different practices when it comes to carbon pricing. Some of them have higher carbon prices, but they have all kinds of trade-offs, which means that the effective price of carbon is not as high as they say, so that causes all kinds of distortion in people’s investment and production decisions. “.
The hope would be for the world to come together and adopt a common carbon price, so that “externalities” are shared, Chan said.
“Having said that, we all know how difficult it is for everyone to come up and agree on a common carbon price, or even agree on a common mechanism to price carbon,” he said.
Announced in the 2018 Budget, Singapore’s carbon tax rate has been set at S $ 5 per ton of greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 to 2023. The government then said that it would be increased by S $ 10 to S $ 15 per ton to 2030.
There have been a number of calls from members of Parliament for Singapore to increase the carbon tax, most recently during a broad parliamentary debate in February.
This debate followed a motion tabled by members of the Government Parliamentary Commission for Sustainability and the Environment to discuss climate change and its impact on Singapore.
Speaking at the presentation of Budget 2021 in Parliament last month, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said Singapore would review the “trajectory and level” of the tax and reveal the result in next year’s budget.
Chan also pointed out that all sectors would be affected by a carbon tax adjustment, and the main question would be the magnitude of the impact.
“I don’t think that when we adjust the carbon price only some sectors will be involved because I think all sectors will be involved (and) affected in some way. The question is one of magnitude, rather than whether or not they are affected, ”said Mr. Chan.
As such, the Government will take into account several considerations and will ensure that when it reviews the price of carbon, it meets its responsibility to future generations, but will also take into account the impact on employment and the cost of living of generations. current. added.
READ: Budget 2021: The government will review the ‘path and level’ of the carbon tax; result in next year’s budget
Ultimately, the boost to sustainability will come with trade-offs, Chan noted, but that doesn’t mean Singapore hasn’t planned ahead.
“I think there will be some tradeoffs, but … in the usual spirit of Singapore and Singaporeans, we always try to have our cake and eat it, and we try to have the best of both worlds,” explained Mr. Chan, who was He asked about the overall costs that societies will have to bear in the name of climate action.
File photo of a man cycling along a park connector in Singapore.
“If you think about our journey over the last 50 years of nation building, in a sense, we’ve actually been ahead of the curve by having to pay this price.”
This has been shown in how Singapore has taken nature into account in urban planning and ensured that buildings are energy efficient, among other measures, he added.
“I don’t think it is completely exclusive to say that we want a better quality of life, we want a greener life and, at the same time, we want to mitigate the cost of living,” Chan said.
“However, I would not be too pessimistic to say that it is a binary option between one and the other. The solutions are definitely not mutually exclusive, and we can, in the best spirit of Singapore, find ways that can combine the best of both worlds. “
Hear Mr. Chan Chun Sing’s full conversation with CNA’s Jaime Ho on The Climate Conversations podcast:
