Green Issues for Singapore General Elections 2011 – #2 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

A series of green issues that could be discussed at the Singapore General Elections 2011. The second issue (not in order of importance) is regarding the legislation on mandatory environmental impact assessments (EIAs).

What are the political parties’ stand on having mandatory EIAs for public and private development projects, and how would it protect the environment and impact our competitiveness?

“An environmental impact assessment is an assessment of the possible positive or negative impact that a proposed project may have on the environment, together consisting of the natural, social and economic aspects”, according to Wikipedia. The purpose of an EIA is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental impacts and engage stakeholders before proceeding with the project.

In Singapore, there is no legislation on mandatory EIA systems, although the government may require EIAs to be conducted for big construction and development projects, usually on a case-by-case basis. Recent EIAs include the study by PUB for the second desalination plant at Tuas, and the study by Resorts World on the reclamation project for the Sentosa IR. Read more

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