Singapore Budget: More carrots needed to go green

Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 1 Mar 11;

THE lack of sweeteners in Budget 2011 to address green issues here came in for scrutiny from two MPs yesterday.

Dr Teo Ho Pin (Bukit Panjang) said that the sole green carrot in the Budget - extending a tax rebate scheme for car buyers who opt for green vehicles by another 12 months - was insufficient to address Singapore's sustainability needs over the next few decades.

He made several suggestions on how this could be addressed, calling, for example, for tax incentives and funds to be channelled towards transportation, housing and educational causes.

Dr Teo also had a radical idea: providing free public transport to wean Singaporeans off car use. He suggested, for example, that free bus services linking town centres, schools or shopping malls in housing estates could be provided by the state.

'This will encourage more people to use public transport... thus reducing our carbon footprints,' he said, adding that such options are used in major cities to reduce traffic congestion and pollution.

Praising the $4.7 million top-up in the Budget for school advisory committees to help needy Singaporeans, he said additional funds could also be allocated to provide students with free school bus rides. This would free up public transport for adults.

Buildings, which are large energy guzzlers here, were another area he touched on. Although the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has the Green Mark scheme which serves as a guide for new buildings to be equipped with green features, he noted that many older buildings were still inefficient energy users.

Since 2008, all new buildings here have had to observe minimum energy consumption standards. But despite this, just 8 per cent of all buildings have been 'greened' since the Green Mark scheme was introduced in 2005.

Dr Teo called for tax incentives to get building owners to upgrade their buildings to meet BCA's Green Mark standard.

More could also be encouraged to construct rooftop gardens, a move that has gained increasing traction here in the last few years as a way to green up the expanding concrete jungle.

He also touched on education, pointing out that many schools and community organisations struggled for funds to put in place programmes that help to raise environmental awareness among the youth.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC), chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, noted that there was a lack of financial incentives for businesses in the green industry.

He said this went against the wider push to coax more firms into the nascent sector here.