More willing to recycle with trial chute

Today Online 23 Oct 08;

A trial at Choa Chu Kang showed that people are motivated to recycle more waste if it is made more convenient.

After a block of HDB flats in the estate had been retrofitted to convert an unused refuse chute into a chute for recyclables, the recycling participation rate of its households increased from 67 per cent inDec 2006 to 93 per cent in July last year.

The amount of recyclables collected through the separate chute was 850kg per month, more than eight times higher than the typical amount of recyclables collected from a block of HDB flats.

In a written reply to a Parliamentary question about the project, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said that separate chutes for recyclables will also be provided in four new HDB blocks at Fernvale Vista in Sengkang, at the new eco-precinct Treelodge@Punggol and at the first two HDB projects for the renewal of Dawson estate in Queenstown.

“These projects would allow HDB to ascertain the additional costs that come with providing the separate recycling chutes, as well as further assess residents’ receptiveness and monitor the performance of the system, before considering the large-scale implementation of separate recycling chutes,” Dr Yaacob replied to the query by Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC).

For condominiums and private apartments, the Environmental and Public Health Act was amended recently to mandate the provision of recycling receptacles. The law will come into effect on Nov 1 and will be fully implemented next year.

Convenient chutes promote recycling
Household participation in HDB pilot scheme hit 93% in July last year
Judith Tan & Seow Kai Lun, Straits Times 24 Oct 08;

HOUSEWIFE H. K. Chua, 38, used to drive 10 minutes to a nearby primary school to throw her recyclables into a bin provided.

But since a chute just for such refuse was installed on every level of her block of flats in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2, her green trip is now a mere five steps away.The separate chutes for recyclable refuse such as bottles, cans and papers are part of a pilot project to make it convenient for households in the heartland to be environmentally-friendly. Block 297C Choa Chu Kang Ave 2 where Madam Chua lives was the testbed.

Called the Recyclable Intermediate Chute Holding (Rich) system, it was developed by SembEnviro and installed next to the existing rubbish chute on every floor of the HDB block in December 2006.

Unlike the current centralised refuse chutes, which collect rubbish at ground level, Rich allows recyclable materials to be stored on intermediate floors.

A spokesman for SembEnviro told The Straits Times that these are collected every week.

Within the first seven months, the participation rate of households in recycling increased to 93 per cent in July last year, from 67 per cent at the start of the programme. The scheme also resulted in an average of 850kg of recyclables collected a month - eight times that collected from any other HDB block.

The impressive increase in recyclable waste collected at the Choa Chu Kang block was brought up by Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim in Parliament during a question-and-answer session on Wednesday.

A Straits Times check with 16 households in the green block, comprising mainly young and three-tier families, found that most were motivated by the convenience to recycle more.

Mrs Zahiriah Ibrahim, 39, a teacher, said her maid separated the daily rubbish into two piles, recyclable and non-recyclable, before disposing of the materials.

'Since it is mixed recyclables, I hope SembCorp follows through by separating the different recyclables. I try to do my part by putting the different types of recyclables into different bags,' she said.

Student Stelle Tan, 16, said she would not 'go in search of a bin on purpose just to dump my recyclables'.

'But if the chute is just a hop away, I have no reason not to,' she said.

And should the adults forget, their children and grandchildren serve as their green conscience. Madam Lim Tong Hoi, 69, says her grandchildren would constantly tell her to 'separate the plastics and cans from other rubbish and put them in the right bin'.

Primary school pupil Cadance Chew, seven, said: 'My teacher taught me at school that we must separate what can be recycled. So I try to remind my parents that we need to be green and to throw the newspapers down the recycling chute.'

Madam Sheila Narendran, 31, said the chute outside her flat acts as an extension of what the children are being taught in school. 'At home, with the chute being conveniently located, we just continue the practice of recycling,' she said.

But Madam Chua lamented that the hoppers should be bigger. 'Currently if recyclable stuff does not fit into the hopper, I will carry it downstairs. How many others can be bothered to do the same?' she asked.

Despite that, with the encouraging results from this testbed block, a spokesman for the National Environment Agency said HDB would be providing separate chutes for recyclables in the Eco-Precinct of Treelodge@Punggol and Fernvale Vista in Sengkang.

Separate chutes for recyclables will also be installed at the first two projects under the new generation public housing in the regenerated Dawson estate.

Dr Yaacob said these smaller projects would allow the different agencies to check additional costs, make sure residents are receptive and to monitor the performance of the system 'before considering the large-scale implementation of separate recycling chutes'.

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Businesswoman wins innovation prize for use of technology and green materials

Keeping it lean and green?
Kelvin Chow Today Online 23 Oct 08;

Spotting wastage in the bulk packaging business, Ms Susan Chong set up a companies that offers environmentally-friendly solutions for firms.

The managing director of Greenpac (S) looked around for suppliers who could provide packaging employing reusable or environmentally friendly materials. At the same time, she aimed to help customers maximise the space in their containers, so that they could save on transport costs.

All this while keeping her staffing low — she started with just two employees in 2002 and now employs about 20.

Ms Chong instead relied on machinery and information technology such as Radio Frequency Identification tags that track the goods.

Yesterday, her company’s green ways and innovative use of technology won her the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Innovation, for “her high level of engagement in adopting information and process technologies in her business strategy,” said the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME).

Ms Chong said: “It is an honour to win this award and this is a good report card for my business.” She added that she intends to move into markets such as the United States and Japan in the future.

Her award was one of four sub-categories at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year award ceremony, Singapore’s oldest award for entrepreneurship. The award is co-organised by ASME and Rotary Club Singapore.

Mr Charles Wong, managing director of Charles & Keith International, was overall winner, coming out ahead of 16 other finalists.

Other awards went to:

• Mr Charles Wong of Charles & Keith International, Mr Ivan Lee of ThaiExpress Concepts, andMr David Loke of Tru-Marine were named Entrepreneurs of the Year for Enterprise.

• Mr Mohamed Ismail of P & N Holdings was named Entrepreneur of the Year for eCommerce.

• Mr Patrick Liew of HSR International Realtors for Entrepreneur of the Year for Social Contribution.

Speaking at the awards ceremony last night, Minister of Defence Teo Chee Hean said that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore so far appear to be coping with the economic challenges, thanks to strong growth in recent years.

Mr Teo also advised small businesses to venture abroad and seek new opportunities in untapped markets. “While traditional markets such as US and Europe are heavily affected by the economic down-turn, there remain opportunities elsewhere for our SMEs to tap on,” he said.

Ms Valerie Tan from Pinnacle International, who was one of the finalists, has already done just that, by setting up business development units around Central Asia for her car trading company.

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'The AVA should start culling the monkey population'

Brazen monkeys
Straits Times Forum 23 Oct 08;

MADAM TAN GEK KIM: 'Recently, wild monkeys have started to appear in my garden in Clementi Park. When I tried to shoo them off, they bared their teeth and advanced towards me. I ran into the house and closed the windows and doors. Subsequently, my two big dogs barked at two monkeys which tried to find a way into my kitchen. Again they bared their teeth at me when I tried to shoo them off, unafraid of humans or dogs.

When I called the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) to solve the problem, the AVA offered me the loan of monkey traps for two weeks and said they would retrieve any trapped monkey if I caught it.

The AVA said the reason monkeys ventured into residences in the first place was that people feed them. Such monkeys expected to be fed. The AVA should start culling monkeys, rather than wait for the population to swell uncontrollably.'

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Amur Leopards benefit from Russian conservation concession

WWF website 22 Oct 08;

Vladivostok, Russia – For the first time ever, a partnership between WWF and a for-profit timber company has been awarded a “conservation concession” to restore approximately 10% of the critically endangered Amur leopard’s habitat.

The Forest Department of Primorskii Province in the Russian Far East has leased out a forest area of 45,000ha in the south-west of Primorye, which straddles Vladivostok and the Chinese boarder, to the Nerpinskoye Cooperative Society (also known as Nerpinskii rybcoop) for the next 25 years.

The last remaining viable wild population of Amur leopard, estimated at less than 40 individuals, is found in this area and WWF and Nerpinskii rybkoop plan to implement a project that will increase biodiversity by selectively removing oak trees, which will open the forest canopy and make way for the more valuable and native spruce, Korean pine and Manchurian fir trees.

“Deer and wild boar do much better in a diverse forest with a smattering of nut crops that come into season at different times throughout the year – that’s a good thing for the Amur leopard,” said Dr. Darron Collins, the managing director for the WWF US Amur program. “By recreating the biodiversity of the area, WWF and Nerpinskkii are making it more valuable for humans and species alike.”

Funds generated from the small scale extraction of timber will be reinvested in the fire prevention and careful tending of forest stands required to improve the ecological integrity of these forests. The project hopes to increase the coverage of mixed coniferous and broadleaved forests by 33% over the next 40 years.

“Only lease holders with long term rights to forest resources on forest use would be prepared to invest the time and energy to restore the forest. We’ve been looking for a reliable partner for this project for many years,“ said Denis Smirnov, head of Forest Program of WWF Russia’s Amur Programme. “Nerpinskii rybcoop, a well-known enterprise in Khasanskii district of Primorye, has become such a partner.”

The restoration project will also provide income to local communities in the area through employment in forestry and the sale of Korean pine nuts and charcoal. In such a case, restoration takes on a much larger meaning as forests and communities are restored.

“One of the most important conditions of project success is its economic advantages for the holder,” said Georgii Dmitriev, the chairman of board of directors of Nerpinskii rybcoop. “The project idea is to make forest restoration activity profitable by means of complex processing of low quality wood, coming from tending cutting in Korean pine stands.”

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US cracks down on illegal logging

WWF website 22 Oct 08;

US trade in products containing illegally logged wood, which costs developing countries an estimated $15 billion a year in lost revenue, may soon be a thing of the past.

Prohibition on trade in illegally logged wood products was passed in May this year, and now US government officials have presented proposals which outline how the new law is to be implemented.

They focused on a phased-in approach for the requirement to declare the origin and species of the plant material contained in a wide variety of products.

Representatives from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice were involved.

“By banning the import of illegally harvested wood products, this measure will help level the playing field for companies, such as those participants of WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network, that are committed to ensuring that their purchases of forest products support legal and responsible logging practices,” said Bruce Cabarle, Director of WWF-US Forest Programme.

The Agencies announced that the enforcement of the declaration requirement will begin on April 1st, 2009 for plants, timber and solid wood products, to coincide with the availability of a web-based declaration system.

Other products of concern, such as furniture and paper, will be phased in subsequently over a two-year time frame.

At the meeting, the Department of Justice emphasized its intention to enforce these prohibitions, suggesting that it was no longer acceptable for wood purchasers to remain ignorant of the source of their material.

"We are very encouraged that importers, retailers and manufacturers have joined us in supporting practical steps to stop the importation of stolen wood," said Alexander von Bismarck, Executive Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

“This commitment by the U.S. government represents a historic breakthrough for international efforts to control deforestation and protect the global environment.”

Illegally logged wood also contributes to the 20 per cent of annual total greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and has been shown to support organized crime around the world.

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How Oil Drilling Could Power the Future in the US

Michael Schirber, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 22 Oct 08;

Editor's Note: Each Wednesday LiveScience examines the viability of emerging energy technologies - the power of the future.

"Drill, baby, drill," is the mantra of those who think America must free up its domestic oil supplies, but drilling offshore is not the only option.

The United States is the third largest oil producer in the world (about 8 million barrels per day), but it is also the number one consumer of oil (20 million barrels per day).

Polls have shown that a majority of Americans want an increase in offshore drilling. In response, Congress let a 27-year-old moratorium on offshore oil drilling expire at the end of last month. This put into play about 16 billion barrels of oil (or about 21 percent of U.S. offshore resources), according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

However, this is just a drop in the bucket.

"We have significant oil and natural gas resources here in the United States," said Richard Ranger, a senior policy advisor for the American Petroleum Institute. He quoted government estimates that say federal lands have 116.4 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil, which could power 65 million cars for 60 years.

Even more oil is out there beyond what is "technically recoverable."

For example, new technologies called enhanced oil recovery (EOR) can pump out some of the oil left stranded by standard extraction techniques (which can only reach about a third of the oil in a reservoir). The United States could get 240 billion barrels from EOR, according to a 2006 DOE report.

And then there is oil locked up in sand and rock. Colorado and other western states have the world's largest deposits of oil shale: a sedimentary rock containing a solid oily substance. If better extraction methods can be devised, American oil shale could supply roughly 2 trillion barrels-worth of oil, which is more than double all the traditional crude oil that humans have has so far used.

Unknown potential

With all this oil presumably there for the taking, why then the political drive to open up drilling offshore, or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)?

"Industry is already aggressively pursuing the oil and natural gas potential of lands that are not off limits," Ranger told LiveScience. "But in order to maximize the ability to develop energy resource potential within our own borders, we need to be able to have access to those areas where the energy potential exists, but may not be well understood."

There may be much more oil offshore than people have thought. A recent example of how oil resources are sometimes underestimated is the Gulf of Mexico, where oil companies have so far produced more than double the oil that was predicted in 1984 to be available at the site, Ranger said.

Advocates for more drilling say that we can't know what's there without looking.

"When Americans are allowed to drill, even on the small 4 percent of government lands that we are permitted to even look, our oil and gas reserves go up," reads a statement from the Institute of Energy Research.

Diversify

Ranger thinks the right strategy is to pursue several options, including "removal of barriers to domestic production, encouragement of energy efficiency and conservation to reduce demand, and encouragement of investment in long-term energy initiatives and advanced technologies, including renewables."

Among these options is EOR, which can obtain an extra 20 percent of oil from mature oil fields and so-called "marginal oil wells." One way to do this is by pumping carbon dioxide underground to help force more oil out of the ground. As such, this would double as a carbon sequestration scheme.

Ranger quoted a recent report from the National Petroleum Council, which says that streamlining regulation and increasing research and development in EOR could result in an additional 90 billion to 200 billion barrels of oil in the United States.

"The opportunity for nearer term production is probably greater with EOR, but the opportunity for discovery of new reserves in significant amounts is probably greater [with offshore and ANWR]," Ranger said.

Other possibilities, such as oil shale, are further out. Some countries, including Estonia and China, use shale oil for heating and electricity generation, but making gasoline is still a challenge.

"The technology to extract energy fuels from oil shale at scale remains in the developmental stage," Ranger said.

The U.S. government's recent $700 billion bailout could help. It includes a 50 percent tax break for the building of refineries that process oil shale, as well as tar sands.

Environmental concerns

None of these options appeal to environmentalists. It is not yet clear that burying carbon dioxide underground is safe or effective, while the mining of oil shale could affect large strands of wilderness and require great quantities of water.

Perhaps the most immediate concern, though, is offshore drilling.

"Offshore is dangerous because of increased spillage caused by increasingly violent storms, fueled by climate change," said Greenpeace spokesperson Daniel Kessler.

It was the threat of oil spills and their impact on beaches and marine environments that originally led to the U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling.

Ranger says that drilling no longer poses the same dangers. New technologies, such as blowout preventers and high-pressure safety valves that close automatically, have greatly reduced the chances of accidental spills.

Other advances are also lessening the impact of drilling. Remote sensing, for example, has improved the success rate for finding oil reservoirs by as much as 50 percent, Ranger said.

"The result: fewer wells need to be drilled to find a given target and production per well is increased," Ranger said.

Environmentalists like Kessler aren't convinced that any new wells need to be drilled.

"The most salient point is that we don't need these resources," he said. "We have the technology available right now to reduce our demand and to transfer over to an economy fueled by renewable energy."

Read more!

Seoul turns to bicycles to combat global warming

Yahoo News 22 Oct 08;

SEOUL (AFP) – The Seoul city government has announced plans to build 207 kilometres (129 miles) of cycle paths over the next four years extending to all corners of the South Korean capital, according to officials.

The 120-billion-won (88-million-dollar) plan is based on a "road diet" programme, under which the number of lanes for passenger vehicles in major roads will be cut to create new cycle paths.

It calls for the construction of 17 main cycle paths totaling 200 kilometres that criss-cross the sprawling city and one downtown seven-kilometre beltway.

"Any urban areas where commuters only rely on vehicles burning fuel cannot avoid blame for global warming and traffic congestion," Seoul City Mayor Oh Se-Hoon said on Wednesday, on the city government's website.

"We will make sure that bicycles will compete with vehicles for commuting in Seoul," said Oh, who rides his bicycle to work every day.

Only 1.6 percent of all commuters use bicycles in Seoul, partly due to a lack of dedicated paths. The city government wants to increase this to 4.4 percent in 2012, 7.6 percent in 2016, and 10 percent in 2020.

The city will also construct bicycle parks at 16 subway stations -- complete with shower rooms and lockers for cyclists before they transit to the subway.

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"New Deal" Approach Needed For Climate Change – UN

PlanetArk 23 Oct 08;

LONDON - The world should take a leaf from US President Franklin Roosevelt's playbook for tackling the Great Depression and fund a "Green New Deal" to fight climate change, a UN agency proposed.

A two-year United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative launched on Wednesday would promote research into marketing tools, such as Europe's carbon emissions trading scheme initiated in 2005, to aid the environment.

This is because political efforts to curb pollution, protect forests and avert climate change have proven "totally inadequate", UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said.

He noted that a huge banking bailout had been mobilised in just four weeks, while the response to climate change was slow.

From 1981 to 2005 the global economy more than doubled, but 60 percent of the world's ecosystems -- for example fisheries and forests -- were either degraded or over-used.

"That's the balance sheet of our planet right now," he said.

A successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the pioneering global pact to fight climate change, set to be agreed in Copenhagen by the end of next year appears more remote than a year ago, Steiner said.

"We're further from a deal in Copenhagen than we were at the end of the Bali conference," he said, referring to the launch of talks on the successor pact last December in Indonesia.

"But does that mean we will not have one? No.

"The difficulty is that there is no deal based on national interest alone. Quite frankly the levels of financing being discussed right now are totally inadequate to allow such a deal to emerge."

British Environment Minister Hilary Benn, hosting the launch, said the UNEP proposal was right in tune with the thinking of Roosevelt, from whom he quoted approvingly:

"'The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.'"

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, editing by Michael Roddy)

UN announces green 'New Deal' plan to rescue world economies
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 22 Oct 08;

A global green 'New Deal' is needed to transform the world's economies, according to a new UN report.

It would be similar to Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal which helped the US recover from the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But it would be aimed at a fundamental restructuring of economies weaning away dependence on oil and towards cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy.

The Green Economy Initiative from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) calls for global economies which invest in better care and management of the Earth's natural resources such as rainforests and oceans.

Rather than more boom and bust cycles and the continued asset stripping of dwindling resources, the new green system would nurture and re-invest in them.

It would refocus the global economy, create growth, trigger a 21st century employment boom and at the same time combat climate change, it is claimed.

Launching the report in London Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director, said the worldwide financial crisis had created an historic opportunity to replace a system which had seen the world's GDP double between 1981-2005 but which had resulted in 60 per cent of the Earth's ecosystem being degraded while 2.6bn people were still living on less than $2 per day.

He said the financial, food and fuel crises of 2008 had been caused by speculation and a failure by governments to regulate markets but they were also part of a wider market failure which was eating away the world's natural resources.

The system was also over-reliant on a finite amount of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - which were often subsidised.

"The flip side of the coin is the enormous economic, social and environmental benefits likely to arise from combating climate change and reinvesting in natural infrastructure - benefits ranging from new green jobs in clean teach and clean energy businesses up to ones in sustainable agriculture and conservation-based enterprises," he said.

Mr Steiner said that even though the world's focus was on the financial crisis, the pressing problems of food, fuel, energy and especially climate change had not altered and the world had no alternative but to reach a deal at the climate conference in Copenhagen next year.

"We need to accelerate towards a green economy. We are talking about nothing less than the transformation of our economies in effect a global green New Deal," he said.

"There will be challenges in bringing about this transformation but there are enormous opportunities and potential and it pays us to do so but governments need to change the signals about how the markets work."

The report has identified six keys areas which would underpin the New Deal:

*Clean energy, cleaner technologies including recycling

* Rural energy including renewables and sustainable biomass

*Sustainable agriculture

*Ecosystem infrastructure

*Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation.

*Sustainable cities including planning, transport and buildings.

Pavan Sukdhev, a banker seconded to UNEP, who is leading an attempt to draw up an 'inventory' of the Earth's resources and what they are worth, said current economic models were now at the limit of what they could deliver.

"Investments will soon be pouring back into the global economy - the question is whether they go into the old, extractive short-term economy of yesterday or a new green economy that will deal with multiple challenges while generating multiple economic opportunities for the poor and the well-off alike."

The UNEP is developing a tool-kit for transforming economies which it will deliver to governments within the next two years.

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The heat is on – climate change gathers pace faster than scientists expected

WWF website 21 Oct 08;

Brussels, Belgium – Global warming is accelerating at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted, according to a new compendium of scientific research released today by WWF.

In 2007, the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their Fourth Assessment Report – a study of global warming that involved nearly 4,000 scientists from more than 150 countries.

However, the science of climate change has moved on in the year since this respected report was published. WWF’s new report, “Climate change: faster, stronger, sooner”, amalgamates this new scientific data and reveals that global warming is accelerating beyond the IPCC’s forecasts.

The report has received the support of climate change experts including Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Professor of Climatology and Environmental Sciences at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and newly elected Vice Chair of the IPCC, who said: “It is clear that climate change is already having a greater impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it’s vital that international mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious. The last IPCC report has shown that the reasons for concern are now stronger, and this should lead the EU to plead for a lower temperature target than the 2°C they adopted in 1996. But even with a 2°C target, the IPCC says that emission reductions between 25 and 40% compared to 1990 are needed by 2020 from developed countries. Reductions by 20% are therefore insufficient."

The latest science shows that the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice up to 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions. It is now predicted that the summer sea ice could completely disappear between 2013 and 2040 – something that hasn’t occurred in more than a million years.

Based on recent scientific studies, the number and intensity of extreme cyclones over the British Isles and the North Sea are projected to increase, leading to increased wind speeds and storm-related losses over Western and Central Europe. The level of ozone, an air pollutant, is projected to be similar to that in the 2003 heat-wave, with major increases over England, Belgium, Germany and France. Annual maximum rainfall is also projected to increase in most parts of Europe, with associated flood risks and economic damages.

Marine ecosystems in the North and Baltic Sea are being exposed to the warmest temperatures measured since records began, while the Mediterranean is expected to experience increases in the frequency of long-term droughts. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps will continue to decrease, with reduction of hydropower production.

At a global level, sea level rise is expected to reach more than double the IPCC’s maximum estimate of 0.59m by the end of the century, putting vast coastal areas at risk. Rising temperatures have already led to a reduction in global yields of wheat, maize and barley.

“If the European Union wants to be seen as leader at UN talks in Copenhagen next year, and to help secure a strong global deal to tackle climate change after 2012, then it must stop shirking its responsibilities and commit to real emissions cuts within Europe,” says Dr. Tina Tin, Climate Scientist and author of the report.

WWF calls on the EU to adopt an emission reduction target of at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020, to be delivered within the boundaries of the EU rather than relying heavily on offsetting overseas. The global conservation organisation also asks the EU to commit to providing substantial support and funding for developing countries, in order to help them tackle future climate change and adapt to those impacts that are already unavoidable.

“Climate change is a major challenge to the future of mankind and the environment, and this sobering overview highlights just how critical it is that EU Environment Ministers discussing the EU legislations against climate change today commit to a strong climate and energy package, in order to ensure a low carbon future,” said Dr. Tina Tin.

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Best of our wild blogs: 22 Oct 08

Who sparked the global cooling myth?
on the Short Sharp Science blog

Highlights of the lows
corals, seagrasses and more! A roundup of recent shore activities on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

A short visit to Singapore
on Chai's Marine Life Blog

Comical worm on Changi
on the colourful clouds blog

Bukit Timah Hill with Clementi Town Sec
on the Urban Forest blog

Semakau CEO Run
on the manta blog

“Willie” the wagtail
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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DPM Jayakumar says innovation is key to solving problems brought by climate change

Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 21 Oct 08;

SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar says climate change has made it necessary for Singapore to think out of the box to anticipate future problems in sustainable living.

One way researchers here are harnessing technology lies in a real-time monitoring system that can detect the health of high-rise buildings, bridges and roads. Led by the A*Star Institute for Infocomm Research, the Fibre Bragg Grating technology will be used in Sengkang HDB estate.

"With this technology, we will be offered some degree of comfort and a sense of security in the future that the buildings we live in, the bridges we cross, and the roads we travel on, will not collapse on us unawares even as they age with time - provided, of course, that the people monitoring the sensors remain vigilant and dedicated to their job," said Professor Jayakumar.

Also being studied - a 3D urban planning software that can simulate airflow in urban areas. The programme is able to analyse how dangerous contaminants in the air are dispersed in an urban environment.

Professor Jayakumar said: "This technology, developed by the researchers at the A*STAR Institute of High-Performance Computing, can be leveraged on to enhance security in the cities, and will also go far in assisting countries and cities in their defence planning in this time of uncertainty where threats of global terrorism are ever-present."

Professor Jayakumar, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security, was speaking at Futuropolis 2058, a conference on urban planning.

Read more!

Recent 21% increase in electricity tariffs not arbitrary

Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia 21 Oct 08;

SINGAPORE: Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, S Iswaran, said the recent 21 per cent increase in electricity tariffs, despite falling oil prices, is not arbitrary.

He told Members of Parliament that the tariffs had been pegged to a 3-month forward oil price, which provides more certainty to consumers.

Distributing a chart in parliament, he said this formula had kept tariffs lower than if the country had pegged tariffs to the daily oil price or spot price instead.

Explaining further, he said the 3-month forward fuel price used in the formula had been lower than the spot fuel oil price in all but five of the 16 quarters since 2004.

He also cautioned against making arbitrary changes to this formula as it would increase regulatory risks, adversely affect investor sentiment and confidence, and ultimately do more harm than good to consumers and businesses.

Mr Iswaran added that the government has introduced measures to help lower income families cope with the rise in electricity prices by offering rebates.

About 80 per cent of electricity in Singapore is generated from natural gas, which is purchased through long term contracts tied to fuel oil prices.

Electricity taxes not pegged to spot oil prices
Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia 21 Oct 08;

SINGAPORE: Electricity taxes in Singapore are not likely go down despite the drop in oil prices.

That's because power rates are not pegged to fluctuating oil prices but to what fuel would cost when delivered every three months.

To provide more certainty, the Trade and Industry Ministry has decided, since 2004, to peg electricity taxes to a three-month forward fuel price formula.

That means power rates do not fall immediately if oil prices drop but will instead follow the the market price of oil delivered in the next quarter.

"This time lag works both ways - that is electricity tariffs move up more slowly when fuel oil prices are rising and move down more slowly when fuel oil prices are falling," said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran.

Mr Iswaran was responding to questions in Parliament.

He also said regulations are in place to prevent the power supplier from overcharging consumers.

But he said the government cannot make it compulsory for companies to transfer more of their profits to consumers as that would discourage them from investing more in improving electricity supply in Singapore.

- CNA/ir

Looking for a cheaper way to power up
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 22 Oct 08;

HAS the time come for anindependent body to oversee electricity tariffs, to ensure that retailers do not short-change Singaporeans? Is there a better way of pricing electricity to benefit low-income users?

Seven MPs posed such hard questions to Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran yesterday, in the wake of a 21-per-cent electricity price hike for households from this month to December.

An independent council monitoring how tariffs are set could provide reassurance to consumers, suggested MP Ho Geok Choo. It could be modelled after the Public Transport Council, which has a price-cap formula for bus and train fare increases. Currently, the Energy Market Authority approves SP Services’ electricity tariff rates.

In response to the suggestion by Mdm Ho (West Coast GRC), Mr Iswaran said we should not “overreact and set up new mechanisms and regulatory channels” as this would affect the perception of regulatory risk here. “If there’s more regulatory risk, you must expect that electricity-generating companies here will expect a higher rate of return than what they currently have,” he said.

Singapore Power — the parent company of SP Services — is regulated so that it does not earn a “supernormal rate of return”, Mr Iswaran said.

The company’s profit after taxation was $1.086 billion in the last financial year, and MP Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) questioned how one could ensure profits benefited not just investors, but also consumers.

The EMA — a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) — uses international industry benchmarks to ensure companies earn a “reasonable rate of return compared to international standards”.

Singapore Power has to invest $5 billion over the next five years to enhance grid infrastructure, and “if they don’t earn what is considered a fair rate of return by industry standards ... they will be tempted to cut back on the investment because it is not in the shareholders’ interests and therefore not in the company’s interest,” Mr Iswaran said.

He added that the EMA is studying ways to improve the current formula for tariff-setting, and will also put up more information on price-setting on its website.

Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim asked if full details of the formula could be published,to which Mr Iswaran replied that “subject to any commercial confidentiality issue, I’m sure EMA will be happy to oblige”.

Ms Lim also asked if Singapore could adopt Hong Kong’s “more affordable” method of tiered pricing where higher prices are charged for electricity that households use over and above the average consumption levels.

Mr Iswaran pointed out that Singapore’s industry is broken into contestable and non-contestable segments, unlike Hong Kong’s integrated structure where electricity retailers are also grid operators and generating companies. Both systems have their pros and cons, he said, but Singapore’s approach is to reduce volatility for consumers.

Despite a 300 per cent rise in fuel oil prices since 2001, electricity prices here have risen by about 50 per cent. Asian countries index natural gas prices to fuel oil prices as there is no distinct market for natural gas like in the United States. Because three-month forward fuel oil pricing is used, high oil prices in July have led to a delayed increase in electricity tariffs, said Mr Iswaran.

On Nominated MP Gautam Banerjee’s concern that divestment of energy companies to foreign players could harm Singapore’s long-term interests, Mr Iswaran said Singapore promotes competition, and that the recent announcement that Senoko Power – bought over by a Japanese-French consortium – would power its plants with cleaner natural gas instead of oil was a good sign.

“We can expect market competition to continue exerting downward pressure on electricity prices without compromising the reliability and security of our energy supply,” he said.

Cheaper power in January?
Electricity tariffs could fall if oil prices slide further
Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times 22 Oct 08;

ELECTRICITY tariffs could fall in January if fuel oil prices continue to slide in the last three months of this year.

Senior Minister of State (Trade and Industry) S. Iswaran also said yesterday that despite the 21 per cent hike in this quarter's tariffs, households are paying less for electricity under the current pricing policy than if another formula had been used.

Mr Iswaran was replying to five MPs who had questioned the need to raise power prices by 21 per cent and had asked for the pricing formula.

MPs Ellen Lee (Sembawang GRC) and Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) reflected a common ground sentiment when they asked why electricity rates had gone up at a time when oil prices had come down.

Mr Iswaran linked it to a three-month time lag in the current formula, which pegs tariffs to the price of fuel oil for delivery in three months' time.

'If the current lower fuel oil prices are sustained, the benefits will flow through with the same time lag to electricity tariffs in the next quarter,' he said.

He also distributed a chart to show that this way of pricing is less volatile, and costs households less, than a formula based on the price paid for immediate delivery of fuel oil, or spot price.

The three-month forward price has been lower than the spot price in all but five of 16 quarters since 2004, he noted.

Even so, the regulator, the Energy Market Authority (EMA), is studying whether the formula can be improved further, he said.

But he rejected Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim's suggestion that the formula was not sustainable.

He warned against making arbitrary changes that will dent investor confidence.

Mr Iswaran also did not think a direct comparison could be made with Hong Kong. Ms Lim had said it had more affordable tariffs by having varied pricing tiers.

He pointed out that Hong Kong generates power using mostly coal, a cheaper but dirtier fuel, while Singapore relies on natural gas. Also, in Hong Kong, the same company produces and sells the electricity and runs the power grid, while the industry here is split up with different players in charge.

However, MP Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) and Nominated MP Gautam Banerjee were worried that energy companies here reaped excessive returns, and the sale of power companies to foreigners would not be in Singaporeans' interests.

Mr Iswaran said the EMA ensures Singapore Power earns a rate of return that is reasonable by international standards.

He also expects Temasek Holdings' sale of its power companies to add competition, keep a lid on electricity prices and promote innovation. Two were sold this year, one to a China company and the other to a Japanese-French consortium.

On calls by MPs Sam Tan (Tanjong Pagar GRC) and Irene Ng (Tampines GRC) for the Government to act against price increases, Mr Iswaran said the markets will be left to work freely, but the Government will step in to help the needy.

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