Green Issues for Singapore General Elections 2011 – #1 Coal

A series of green issues that could be discussed at the Singapore General Elections 2011. The first issue (not in order of importance) is on the use of coal.

What are the political parties’ stand on the use of coal in Singapore and the implications on our carbon emissions target and our clean and green image?

Tuas Power’s coal plant

Read the chronology of the clean coal and biomass cogeneration plant by Tuas Power.

Tuas Power’s new coal and biomass plant at Jurong Island would start operations mid next year, and the company has signed a contract with Indonesia’s PT Bayan Resources to supply 13.36 million tonnes of sub-bituminous coal over the next 15 years from Kalimantan, and has also struck a deal with South Korea’s Samtam Co Ltd to supply coal. Tuas Power is also concluding a deal for the palm kernel, which makes up the 20% biomass component of the plant feedstock (the other 80% is coal).

If a calculation is done only for the coal supplied by PT Bayan Resources, and excluding the coal from Samtam Co Ltd and the palm biomass, the combustion of 13.36 million tonnes of sub-bituminous coal would emit about 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s calculation tool). Read more

How Asians Can Encourage Facebook to Unfriend Coal by Earth Day

Greenpeace is campaigning to get Facebook to unfriend coal by Earth Day, April 22, and Asians can help to encourage Facebook too.

Greenpeace’s Unfriend Coal campaign wants Facebook to:

• Increase the use of clean energy to make Facebook coal free
• Develop a plan to make Facebook coal free by 2021
• Educate users about how Facebook powers its services and its carbon footprint
• Advocate for clean energy at a local, national and international level

Facebook announced last year that it is building a new energy efficient data centre to serve the hundreds of millions of its users, but the company plans to run it on electricity from burning coal, which is the most carbon intensive fossil fuel and also very pollutive. Greenpeace believes that Facebook can move away from coal and switch to clean energy, and influence the rest of the IT sector to do likewise. Read more

Government Needs to Come Clean on Coal

Grace Chua of the Straits Times wrote an article today on “Reign of old king coal is not necessarily over“, exploring the upsides and downsides of using coal.

Here is Eugene’s reply letter to the ST Editor:

I refer to the article, “Reign of old king coal is not necessarily over” by Grace Chua (ST Mar 19).

The article highlighted several environmental and technological uncertainties associated with the use of coal, which would be best answered by the government. The public needs to know the pros and cons of using coal, and it would help if the government openly and clearly explains its decision to use coal, while anticipating the coming carbon-constrained world, maintaining our clean and green image, and achieving our aim to be a clean energy hub.

For a start, the government could clarify the following:

1. Has the government assessed the environmental impacts of using coal or conducted a life cycle assessment study of coal? How does it compare with natural gas?

2. Would the government require the upcoming coal and biomass-fired power plant by Tuas Power or new power plants using coal, to conduct an environmental impact assessment before going ahead to construct?

3. Would the use of coal lead to more carbon emissions as compared to using natural gas, and undermine the government’s own efforts to reduce emissions by 16% from 2020 business-as-usual levels?

4. Is the government funding research on carbon capture and storage, or technology to reduce coal emissions so that they are on par with those from natural gas?

5. Would the use of coal tarnish Singapore’s reputation as a clean and green city?

6. Would the use of coal without carbon capture and storage technology contradict Singapore’s vision to be a clean energy hub?

7. Would the use of coal reduce the demand for LNG and challenge the viability of the government’s new LNG terminal?

Recommendations and Strategies by the Economic Strategies Committee

The Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) has completed its work and has submitted the report of its key recommendations to the Prime Minister. The report is released today and can be downloaded at the ESC website.

The ESC was formed in May 2009 to:

develop strategies for Singapore to build capabilities and maximise opportunities as a global city in a new world environment, so as to achieve sustained and inclusive growth.

The ESC is chaired by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance, and comprises members from the government, the labour movement, the private sector as well as academia.

Key Recommendations:

We must achieve higher productivity growth of 2 to 3 percent per year, enabling our GDP to grow on average by 3 to 5 percent per year over the next decade.

Increased productivity is not achieved merely through increased efficiency, but restructuring our economy to provide more room for rapidly growing and innovative enterprises.

7 Key Strategies:

1. Growing through skills and innovation
2. Anchor Singapore as a Global-Asia Hub
3. Build a Vibrant and Diverse Corporate Ecosystem
4. Make Innovation Pervasive, and Strengthen Commercialisation of R&D
5. Become a Smart Energy Economy
6. Enhance Land Productivity to Secure Future Growth
7. Build a Distinctive Global City and an Endearing Home

Here’s the ESC’s recommendations on Smart Energy Economy in the report: Read more

Clean Coal and Biomass Cogeneration Plant by Tuas Power: A Chronology

This is a chronology of the news and responses on Tuas Power’s clean coal and biomass cogeneration plant.

14 Mar 08 – Tuas Power sold to China Huaneng Group (Temasek successfully completes divestment of Tuas Power by Temasek Holdings)

27 Mar 08 – Tuas Power announced that it is looking at building a $2 billion coal-fired plant (Tuas Power may build $2b coal-fired plant by Business Times)

2 Apr 08 – We think it is highly possible that Tuas Power would take the coal route and expressed our concerns (Red dot goes black? by AsiaIsGreen)

26 Sep 08 – Tuas Power announced plans to build a $2 billion steam and electricity production plant to run on clean coal and biomass on Jurong Island (Tuas Power to build $2b ‘clean’ plant by Straits Times) Read more

Next Page »