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COP26: UK pledges £290m to help poorer countries cope with climate change

Posted on by dishanth
COP26: UK pledges £290m to help poorer countries cope with climate change

Government ministers from around the world are in Glasgow for more talks.

They will discuss how to support poorer countries and if reparations for damage from natural disasters should be paid.

Poorer nations have called for $100bn of financial help, arguing they are already suffering and will be worst affected by climate change.

Developing countries have historically contributed a very small proportion of the damaging emissions driving climate change – while currently the wealthiest 1% of the global population account for more than double the combined emissions of the poorest 50%.

The majority of the money from the UK will go to help Asian and Pacific nations plan and invest in climate action, improve conservation and promote low-carbon development, the government said.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office described the £290m as “new funding” from the foreign aid budget. The government said last month that cuts to the UK’s foreign aid spending, to 0.5% of national income, will stay in place until at least 2024-25.

Senior government climate change advisers previously warned the cuts showed the UK was “neither committed to nor serious about” helping countries vulnerable to climate change ahead of COP26.

The UN summit will continue until Sunday, with much of the focus of the talks over how to limit global warming to the target of 1.5C.

Monday will see negotiators discuss how best to mitigate the impact of a warming planet, particularly for poorer countries.

Developing countries are asking for $100bn (around £73bn at current exchange rates) annually to help reduce emissions and adapt to climate change and reaching net-zero targets on emissions well before 2050.

A pledge for $100bn from wealthier nations was made as long ago as 2009, but the plans to have it in place by 2020 have not been realised and current targets aim to reach it by 2023 – an offer which has been described as “extremely disappointing”.

International trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the world “must act now” to prevent more people being pushed into poverty by climate change.

 

Where will the money be spent?

The government said its £290m in new funding to tackle the impact of climate change will be split between:

  • £274m to assist Asian and the Pacific nations to plan and invest in climate action, improve conservation and ensure low-carbon development
  • £15m to a fund designed to support developing countries focus their response where they most need it
  • £1 million to support delivery of faster and more effective global humanitarian action, including in response to climate-related disasters

But there is also the question of whether rich nations should pay reparations to vulnerable countries for damage already caused by climate change.

Wealthy nations have never acknowledged legal liability for the impact of their emissions – because the bill could run into trillions.

So far, Scotland is the only country promising to donate to a compensation fund for countries whose economies have been damaged by climate change with a £1m pledge.

Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, said Scotland’s pledge is the first time any developed nation has tacitly admitted responsibility for contributing to global warming – and he believed it will not be the last.

 

Tough week ahead

The Glasgow COP isn’t really one conference – in effect it’s two processes in parallel.

One is a series of daily events organised by the British presidency of the COP. This innovation has already conjured welcome initiatives on forests, finance, methane and technology. This week it’ll unveil pledges on transport, cities and science. They’ll be significant if they’re carried through.

Meanwhile in parallel the tangled talks of the formal UN process labour on.

There are disagreements over the rules governing climate deals, whether rich countries will offer more cash to poorer countries already suffering from dangerous heating – and whether given the urgency of climate disruption, nations should raise their carbon-cutting ambitions in two years instead of five.

There’s also a question of reparations for nations harmed by emissions they didn’t cause. So far the only contribution to the fund is £1m from Scotland.

It’ll be a tough week.

 

Charity Christian Aid said some of the world’s poorest countries could suffer an average 64% hit to their economy by the end of the century under current climate policies.

Mohamed Adow, director of Kenyan climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, described the “scale of the economic disaster” as “deeply unjust”.

“The fact rich countries have consistently blocked efforts to set up a loss and damage fund to deal with this injustice is shameful”, he added.

The first week of the climate talks have led to a variety of pledges, including a major deal to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, and to cut methane emissions.

President of COP26, Alok Sharma, said the pledges made “must be delivered on and accounted for” by all nations.

Former US President Barack Obama is expected to speak in Glasgow later about the progress made in the five years since the Paris Agreement took effect.

 

 

Source BBC

Can old traditions and tech help Singapore reach zero waste?

Posted on by dishanth
Can old traditions and tech help Singapore reach zero waste?

You can hear Madam Ng trundling down the road long before you see her.

In the quiet of the early morning, the low rumble of her heavily laden trolley reverberates through the streets of the historic Tiong Bahru area of Singapore.

Madam Ng is a karang guni trader, one of the rag and bone collectors who have traditionally picked up the things people throw away.

This includes everything from old newspapers, drinks cans, second-hand clothes to unwanted electronic devices. They usually sell them on to other karang guni traders or recycling firms.

Karang guni itself comes from the Malay term for the large hessian sacks that they traditionally used to carry their goods.

 

Madam Ng has been working as a karang guni for over three decades Source BBC

 

Nowadays, these have been replaced by trolleys like Madam Ng’s, often four-wheeled flat-bed carts, or two-wheeled sack trolleys as well as trucks and vans.

Madam Ng became a karang guni more than three decades ago, as she wanted to make extra money to help pay for one of her daughters to study abroad.

“I was in my 40s and still a nurse. I used to go around collecting newspapers, magazines and books after work – but now I’ve been doing it daily since I retired,” she says as she takes a rare break from her round.

Now, aged 78, her daily work routine would be daunting for many half her age. “Every day I wake up at 4am and am out of the house by 4.30am. I push my cart around the neighbourhood, collecting discarded newspapers and cans. I am out for about four to five hours, then I go home and I’m done for the day.”

 

Karang guni men and women collect the materials thrown away in Singapore. Source GETTY IMAGES

 

‘Zero waste’

While rag and bone collectors may seem like an echo from the past in many countries, they are still part of Singapore’s present and most likely its future.

Singapore is known as one of the cleanest cities in the world, and its army of collectors are the city-state’s original recyclers. Even in this $380bn (£270bn) economy, the government sees them playing a crucial part in its sustainability programme.

 

A karang guni woman weaves through heavy traffic with her trolley. Source GETTY IMAGES

 

The Singapore Green Plan 2030 covers a whole range of sustainable goals, including cutting the amount of waste sent to landfill by 30% within the next decade.

 The recycling business was hit hard by the pandemic as the volume of material Singapore recycled dropped, as the global economy was shut down to slow the spread of Covid.

The sudden halt saw the country’s overall recycling rate, for homes and businesses combined, fall to 52% in 2020 compared to 59% the previous year.

 

Workers sort through waste by hand at one of Singapore’s recycling hubs. Source GETTY IMAGES

 

The National Environment Agency (NEA), which is charge of Singapore’s recycling efforts, thinks that this was just a blip and is now focussed on plans to become a zero-waste economy.

Christopher Tan, director of NEA’s sustainability division says he sees karang guni men and women playing an important role as part of the city-state’s recycling network as it aims to hit that ambitious zero-waste target.

“They can complement the current collection methods. There’s still the challenge of getting the recycling from the door of your home. They have networks. They have knowledge of what can and what cannot be recycled,” he says.

Singapore relies on the private sector to manage the island’s rubbish collection, waste disposal and recycling services – and it is these firms that are working with the karang guni industry.

 

Next generation

One such firm is SembWaste. It has created an app – ezi – that helps to connect the karang guni collectors with the company during their working day, as well as members of the public who want recycling collected from outside their homes.

 

Technology is being used to create waste collection networks. Source SEMBWASTE

 

“We have forged partnerships with a network of karang gunis… with more than 100 of them as part of the ezi network,” says Goh Siok Ling, SembWaste’s commercial director.

At 32, Aiden Ang is part of the new generation of karang guni traders. After graduating with a diploma in telecommunications engineering he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps to join the clothing recycling business rather than pursue a more mainstream career.

Despite the downturn in recycling due to Covid, Mr Ang is confident the industry has a promising future: “I personally believe this trade is here to stay in the long term.

“Everyone is getting into the habit of recycling because of education. I am confident the number of recyclers will increase over the years to come.”

Mr Ang sees the use of apps as a big step forward, “with young blood in the company we can run the business in a better way, especially with technology”. He says this is what helped convince him to enter the trade – and to improve it.

“It is super convenient for the residents interested in participating in the recycling drive. For us as the operator, it helps us to organise the operational flow and handle the transactions very efficiently.”

 

Singapore’s Boat Quay district is full of restaurants, bars and cafes which all need waste collection and recycling. Source GETTY IMAGES

 

Mr Ang also points to opportunities he sees for young people, as the trade is currently dominated by older karang guni collectors, like Madam Ng, many of whom are nearing retirement.

 

‘I want to keep on’

Although Madam Ng may not be part of the new generation of tech-savvy karang guni traders, she is not planning to give up her trolley just yet.

“I sell my collection [on] to another karang guni who comes round on his lorry. He’s very busy, as a lot of seniors do what I do, and he collects from them too,” she says.

A criticism sometimes levelled at the karang guni business is that it relies on elderly people who are paid poorly for the amount of physical work they put in.

But for Madam Ng the job isn’t really about money these days. Since being widowed, she has lived comfortably with one of her daughters and her family.

“It is physically tough. My daughters tell me to stop. But I’d rather do it than sit around at home.”

“Sitting too much is bad for you – it’s very bad for the mind. When I’m out with my cart, it helps to clear my mind.”

Source BBC

Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Posted on by dishanth
Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Climatech Corp and Inovues are the winners of the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge (CSXC) 2021, a global hunt for sustainability innovations in the built environment.  

Both winners will receive S$50,000 (US$38,000) each to fund, test and implement their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide, as well as mentorship by a CapitaLand business leader. 

Climatech won the Most Innovative Award for their water treatment process to treat cooling water without the use of chemicals or power, while Inovues won the High Impact Award for their insulating glass retrofit technology.  

Climatech’s solution, known as the ClimaControl Quantum Resonance Water, is a novel solution that allows cooling water to be recycled for other uses in buildings, such as plant irrigation or toilet flushing. Based in Singapore, the company’s solution uses photon vibration frequency technology to treat cooling tower, achieving 60 to over 90 per cent of water savings, and one to over five per cent of energy savings.

From the United States, Inovues’ insulating glass technology reduces energy consumption to heat or cool buildings by up to 40 per cent without compromising on the luminosity indoors. The smart glass technology can be retrofitted on to existing windows, and reduces noise and heat gain inside a building by up to 10 times. Windows are the Achilles’ heel of the built environment, said one of the judges, Rushad Nanavatty, managing director or urban transformation at RMI.

 

The two winners will also have the chance to showcase their innovations to senior global business leaders, investors and policymakers at the annual Ecosperity Week sustainability event organised by Temasek. 

“Research and innovation leading to commercialisation is a space where public and private sectors must collaborate. Research can be long-dated and involves high risk. Governments must support and fund it. Innovation and commercialisation of products of research require entrepreneurial acumen and nimble responses. This is where many enterprises have strengths,” said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore, Grace Fu, who was the guest-of-honour at the grand finale.

 

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer announces the CapitaLand Innovation Fund at the CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge grand finale. Image: CapitaLand

 

The themes for the inaugural challenge were low carbon transition, water conservation and resilience, waste management and circular economy, and healthy and safe buildings. 

The winning solutions emerged from a shortlist that included a portable, self-powered energy generator cum chiller, a thermal insulation curtain wall, a smart waste bin which uses artificial intelligence to sort waste, and an indoor air disinfection solution. All six finalists and selected participants will have a chance to pilot their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide.

At the grand finale, CapitaLand also announced a S$50 million innovation fund to support the test-bedding of sustainability and other high-tech innovations in the built environment. 

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer said: “The inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge has allowed us to uncover promising innovations that we can potentially implement at our properties across the globe, and help us achieve our ambitious targets set out in our 2030 Sustainability Master Plan.”

 

 

By Sonia Sambhi

Source Eco Business

Will Asian consumers pay for clean energy?

Posted on by dishanth
Will Asian consumers pay for clean energy?

Will people in price-sensitive Asia only buy clean energy if it’s cheap? Eco-Business spoke to clean energy entrepreneurs about why consumer behaviour is lagging behind investment trends in Asia, and what can be done to persuade more people to switch to clean electricity.

 

Clean energy is on the rise, even in Asia, where fossil fuels play a stubbornly resilient role in the region’s energy story. The proportion of renewable energy consumed in Asia is projected to double within the decade.

The big question is, what will persuade the region’s consumers to switch to clean electricity? Will people in price-sensitive Asia only buy clean energy if it’s cheap?

A GlobalData consumer survey in 2019 showed that 45 per cent of consumers in Asia Pacific prefer to buy products that are “better for the environment”. Asian consumers also expect brands to care about society. Compared to just 41 per cent in the US and 46 per cent in the UK, 58 per cent of Asian consumers prefer to see brands leading meaningful initiatives in their communities.

But that does sentiment translate to the energy people consume?

Martin Lim, CEO of Singapore-based marketplace for retail electricity, Electrify.sg, says that although investors are showing a growing appetite for clean energy in Asia, consumers seem to be behind the curve. Out of about 66,000 residential rooftops in Singapore, less than 1,400 have adopted solar panels in their homes, he notes. Why?

Requiring about $20,000 in upfront investment, a home solar panel system in Singapore would still need about 6-10 years before it starts to provide owners with “free energy”; after offsetting the energy expenditure of household consumption.

Jeffrey Char, founder and CEO of SOGO Energy, a Japan-based renewable energy investment firm that serves rural communities in developing countries, believes that Asian consumers still tend to be rather price-sensitive, even in wealthier countries like Singapore.

 

Even if there’s a one-cent difference, the percentage of consumers who would pay extra would probably drop from 90 per cent to 10 per cent.

Jeffrey Char, CEO and founder, SOGO Energy

 

Increasing financial pressures in the region like household debt only serve to heighten the price sensitivity to “non-essential” or “luxury” goods.

Furthermore, Asian consumers are twice as likely as their American counterparts to tighten their wallets after a crisis. 60 per cent of consumers in this region are putting more money aside for rainy days post Covid-19, according to a study by Bain and Facebook.

Karlo Edesson Abril, accounts manager of Filipino solar energy developer SunAsia Energy, thinks that economic status is still the largest determinant of individuals’ power to vote with their wallets.

“Sustainability and green energy is the way to go, but for people who are just living from day to day, every peso counts. So if green energy is cheap, people will go for it, but price is still the main concern.”

What is causing clean energy inertia in Asia?

What experts agree on is that the lack of consumer demand is not due to the inefficacies of renewables, and emerging reports are proving renewables to be the lowest cost form of energy in many countries.

But larger factors are at play that makes switching less worthwhile.

For one, clean energy might cost more in developed countries, because of existing grid and pricing infrastructure that favours traditional energy sources.

“In Singapore, you flip a switch and the lights come on. In other parts of Asia, you have people whose generators go out all the time because of poor infrastructure. They’re using fossil fuels in a very suboptimal way, and it ends up being very expensive and very dirty. Having the choice to invest in clean energy versus fossil fuels from scratch, it makes sense for them to choose the former,” explains Char.

It is for this reason that rural Asia and Africa might leapfrog developed economies to clean energy “in the same way they didn’t build telephone networks and jumped straight to cell phones,” he says.

 

Levelling the playing field

While meeting global climate targets will likely depend on stronger demand for clean electricity in Asia, stakeholders are using a variety of approaches to help consumers make the switch.

SOGO allows its clients to completely avoid transmission costs by installing solar power locally, giving clean energy a 9 yen (USD$0.086) competitive advantage.

On a governmental level, support seems to be headed in the right direction. “I think it’s commendable for The Department of Energy in the Philippines to start quantifying generation instead of capacity, looking more at consumer-centric prices (kilowatt-hours) instead of installed capacity,” says Abril.

Nevertheless, it remains hard for clean energy projects to remain financially sustainable if they drain state funds with feed-in tariffs.

Perhaps the most recent and notable example of this is the Japanese government’s cutting of feed-in-tariff purchase prices towards 2019, even though the return of investment for post-Fukushima solar farms was staggeringly profitable.

“The investments in these solar farms [in Japan] took only about four years or less to break-even, which is twice as fast as that of anywhere else around the world,” Lim says. “But feed-in-tariffs is a model that eventually stops because the premium is paid for by the state.”

Governmental initiatives need to be complemented by market mechanisms to promote organic demand.

 

Clean energy washing? 

A looming danger is that consumers might purchase the cheapest available clean energy plan—which might not actually reduce their carbon footprint.

Since the launch of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme 15 years ago, mandating big emitters to offset via carbon reduction projects, the demand boom for carbon offsets has resulted in incidences of fraud and greenwashing. 

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), which provide proof of a carbon offset, are a reliable way to offset emissions. Whereas a typical reforestation project might be time and cost-intensive, solar and wind projects are easy to audit even on a large scale, according to Kang Jen Wee, founder and CEO of renewable energy certification company Trecs.ai. But the currency is not flawless; RECs could be subject to double-counting or false reporting.

 

RECs emerged more than 10 years ago, as a tool to address flaws in the carbon crediting system. At that time, there was no high-speed broadband, but today we can tap on real-time data to avoid greenwashing.

Martin Lim, founder and CEO, Electrify.sg

To ensure a reliable offset, there are firms that specialise in verification, such as Trecs.ai, which holds REC sellers accountable. Using blockchain technology, every transaction can be tracked in the public domain, and consumers can find out exactly where their clean energy originates from by keying in the serial number of their purchased REC.

Meanwhile, Electrify works to attribute the energy in real-time, limiting the amount of clean energy one can buy to offset their emissions at each time period. This ensures sustainable rates of consumption.

Ultimately, consumers are more likely to switch to clean energy if they are made aware of its benefits.

“If we put environmental education in the general curriculum, we can educate everyone of the benefits of clean energy,” says Abril. Sustainability Reporting is also an important way to employees to be more conscious of their energy consumption choices and therefore carbon footprint, he says.

 

 

By Rachel Teng

Source Eco Business

Singapore is building a 42,000-home eco ‘smart’ city

Posted on by dishanth
Singapore is building a 42,000-home eco ‘smart’ city

In a country where over 80% of residents live in public housing, a government commitment to sustainable urban design could have huge implications. And when it’s a tropical country where convenience and air conditioning are a way of life, the impact could be greater still.

Promising 42,000 new homes across five residential districts, the eco-town of Tengah — the Malay word for “middle,” though it’s in the island’s western region — will be the 24th new settlement built by Singapore’s government since World War II. It is, however, the first with centralized cooling, automated trash collection and a car-free town center, which conservationists hope offers a roadmap for slashing carbon emissions in the Southeast Asian city-state.

The development is being dubbed a “forest town” by officials, due to its abundant greenery and public gardens. Once home to brickmaking factories, and later used for military training, the 700-hectare (2.7-square-mile) site has been reclaimed by an extensive secondary forest in recent years. A 328-foot-wide ecological “corridor” will be maintained through its center, providing safe passage to wildlife and connecting a water catchment area on one side to a nature reserve on the other.

Planners say the town has been designed with pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

 

 

The project has proven a tabula rasa for urban planners advocating green design principles and “smart” technology, according to Chong Fook Loong, group director for research and planning at Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB), the agency overseeing the country’s public housing.

“Tengah is a clean slate,” he said in a video interview, explaining that roads, parking and utilities are being pushed beneath the town center. “We’re going for the ideal concept of segregation of traffic, (with) everything underground and then the ground level totally freed up for pedestrians — for people. So, it’s a very safe environment for all.

“We want a town that allows walking and cycling in a very user-friendly manner,” he added, saying that cycling has “taken off” in Singapore in the “last three to five years especially.”

The master plan will see the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, while the streets are also being “futureproofed” to accommodate emerging technologies, Chong said.

“When we planned the road network, we envisaged a future where autonomous vehicles and self-driving vehicles will become a reality,” he said.

 

Cooler by design

Although comparatively small, with a population of under 6 million people, Singapore’s per-capita emissions are higher than those of the UK, China, and neighboring Malaysia, according to the country’s National Climate Change Secretariat.

That’s due, in part, to air conditioning, which accounts for more than a third of typical household energy consumption. Global warming will only exacerbate this dependence. The Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) has predicted that, by the end of this century, average daily temperatures in the city-state may be at least 34.1 degrees Celsius (93.4 degrees Fahrenheit) “almost every day” during the eight warmest months of the year.

An artist’s impression of the 2.7-square-mile site. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

 

 

As such, keeping cool will, increasingly, be a necessity for residents. Rather than demonizing air conditioning, Tengah’s planners have instead sought to reimagine it. Cold water, chilled using solar power, will be piped though the district’s homes, meaning residents don’t need to install inefficient outdoor AC condensers (though they can still control the temperature in their own apartments).

According to the town’s energy provider, SP Group, this will generate carbon dioxide savings equivalent to taking 4,500 cars off the roads each year. The state-owned energy company reports that, of the apartments already sold in advance, 9 out of 10 future residents have signed up for centralized cooling.

Planners used computer modeling to simulate wind flow and heat gain across the town, helping to reduce the so-called urban heat island effect (whereby human activities and structures make urban areas notably warmer than the surrounding nature). Elsewhere, “smart” lights will switch off when public spaces are unoccupied, and trash will be stored centrally, with monitors detecting when garbage needs collecting.

“Instead of using a truck to collect garbage from every block, we will suck all the garbage through the pneumatic system to a chamber that serves several blocks,” Chong said. “From time to time, the (garbage) truck just needs to collect from the chamber.”

One of the town’s five residential districts, known as the Plantation District, will offer community farming. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

 

 

Of the 42,000 homes being built at Tengah, more than 70% will be made available through the HDB on long-term leases. Prices for two-bedroom apartments currently begin at just 108,000 Singapore dollars ($82,000), with the first apartments set to complete in 2023.

All residents will have access to an app allowing them to monitor their energy and water usage. (“You empower them to take control of where they can cut down their energy consumption,” Chong said.) Digital displays in each block will meanwhile inform occupants of their collective environmental impact, which could even encourage competition between residential blocks, according to SP Group.

Regardless of whether the use of smart technology can significantly dent greenhouse gas emissions or not, engaging residents with their own consumption could instigate behavioral change, according to Perrine Hamel, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment. This, she added, is a crucial part of Singapore’s goal of reaching peak emissions by 2030 and reducing them thereafter.

“Thinking about food consumption and thinking about the way people use air conditioning is all part of (achieving climate targets),” she said. “Changing behavior is going to be an integral part of it and, of course, urban design is the first way to affect and change behavior.”

Dubbing the project a “forest town,” planners aim to retain some of the site’s natural greenery. Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board

 

 

Connecting with nature
For Hamel, the integration of nature and residential areas — which creates “more opportunities for people to interact with nature” — is where Tengah’s plan excels. In addition to the aforementioned forest corridor, the town’s residents will have access to community farming in the so-called Plantation District.

Beyond promoting and protecting biodiversity, conserving nature on the site can lead to further behavioral change, Hamel said.

“There are a lot of examples, from around the world, showing that changing our relationship with nature through everyday encounters does help people take environmental action,” she said. “On that front I think the biophilic design and (Tengah’s) master plan actually does a good job.”.

The Nature Society Singapore (NSS) has nonetheless criticized the plan for conserving too little — less than 10% — of the site’s existing forest. The environmental group has proposed two additional “core forest areas” at either end of the green corridor to promote biodiversity and protect migratory species.

 

 

The government said it is “refining” its plan based the NSS report, though Singapore’s Land Transport Authority has since disclosed that even more of the remaining forest — about 3% of the proposed corridor — will be felled to make way for viaducts connecting the town to a nearby expressway.

(In an email to CNN, the agency said it will later replant the trees in the cleared area and create “suitable temporary wildlife crossings … to provide a safe passage for animals during construction.”)

Yet, even Tengah’s critics have broadly welcomed the eco-town, with the NSS concluding its environmental critique by stating it is still “heartened by this bold plan.”

What these urban design initiatives mean for the rest of Singapore remains to be seen. When Tengah was first revealed in 2016, it was the first new town announced by Singapore’s government in two decades, meaning every other neighborhood was designed long before the era of autonomous vehicles and internet-enabled amenities. Chong readily admitted that “it’s not so easy” to retrofit underground road networks and pneumatic trash chutes in existing towns.

Nevertheless, he struck a positive note when asked what Tengah’s model offers future residential projects.
“We try to bring all the lessons forward — whenever we can and to the best of our ability,” he said. “You look at Tengah and, in a nutshell, you’re seeing the future of what the (government) is trying to build: the future of towns.”

 

 

Written byOscar Holland

Source CNN

The challenge of transition – what will it take to meet green energy commitments?

Posted on by dishanth
The challenge of transition – what will it take to meet green energy commitments?

 

 

It will be a grim future for all of us unless we quickly kick our fossil fuel habit.

Tim Rockell of the advisory firm Energy Strat Asia has spent three decades in the energy sector, and he stopped by to give us the front-line view on forming the public/private partnerships that are crucial to switching to green energy.

In the newest Impact Interview, Rockell talks enticing governments to take immediate action, making sustainability appealing to corporate shareholders, making smart infrastructure investments, and much more.

 

 

Source: Tech For Impact

Shell Singapore unveils decarbonization strategy. What does it mean for the nation’s energy industry and workforce?

Posted on by dishanth
Shell Singapore unveils decarbonization strategy. What does it mean for the nation’s energy industry and workforce?

Shell Singapore is aiming to cut its CO2 emissions by around a third over the next 10 days – but the strategy will also reportedly come at the expense of 500 jobs.

Shell Singapore has outlined a 10-year plan which builds on the company’s overarching ambition to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner.

Commenting, Aw Kah Peng, Chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore, said: ‘Today, our extensive presence in Singapore’s energy sector carries with it a carbon footprint. Our businesses in Singapore must evolve and transform, and we must act now if we are to achieve our ambition to thrive through the energy transition. Our decisive action today will help Shell in Singapore stay resilient and build a cleaner, more sustainable future for all of us.’

The company plans to accelerate the transition through three pillars, one of which involves providing low-carbon solutions for customers in sectors which are also important pillars of Singapore’s economy – including shipping.

Shell Singapore said that its Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site ‘will pivot from a crude-oil, fuels-based product slate towards new, low-carbon value chains.’

Shell Singapore said: ‘We will reduce our crude processing capacity by about half and aim to deliver a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. Repurposing Bukom will not only involve significant changes in our refinery configuration, but also increased investments in our assets, and critically, in our people.’

However, these changes, said Shell Singapore, ‘will have a corresponding effect on our staff numbers.’

The company noted that as the Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site transforms and becomes smaller and smarter, the resizing of operations ‘will result in fewer jobs but more highly skilled jobs as digitalisation and automation progress’.

Shell Singapore currently employs 1,300 staff, however, according to media reports, this number looks set to fall to around 800 after a spokesperson for the company confirmed that the company would be cutting 500 jobs by 2023.

 

 

Source Bunker Spot

Do you have an idea to make buildings part of the fight against climate change?

Posted on by dishanth
Do you have an idea to make buildings part of the fight against climate change?

The inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge is searching the globe for the most innovative solutions to make buildings more climate-resilient and resource-efficient.

In less than a decade, 60 per cent of the global population will live in cities. How can the built environment innovate and adapt to accommodate 360 million more people projected to live in urban areas by 2030 and build within planetary boundaries?

On Tuesday (10 November), real estate group CapitaLand launched the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge, a global search for innovations to make buildings more climate-resilient and resource-efficient from their initial design to construction.

Launched in conjunction with CapitaLand’s 2030 Sustainability Master Plan, the innovation challenge will source for solutions to meet its new sustainability targets.

The challenge falls under four key themes that address important pain points of the built environment: low carbon transition, water conservation and resilience, waste management and the circular economy, and healthy and safe buildings.

“Through the CXSC, we are inviting individuals and companies worldwide to contribute their impactful and scalable innovations. We are also discussing with local and international organisations on opportunities to partner us for the challenge. We look forward to working with our partners and the participants to bring great ideas to life and to co-create a more sustainable built environment across the global communities we operate in,” said Lynette Leong, chief sustainability officer of CapitaLand Group.

“In addition to tackling the challenges of lowering carbon emissions and water conservation as well as promoting circularity in our waste management practices, threats such as Covid-19 and the haze have sharpened our focus on further improving the health and safety of our building occupants and customers, beginning with elevating the indoor air quality at our properties. This will reinforce our leading position as a sustainable global real estate company,” she added.

Two winners will be selected for the High Impact Award and Most Innovative Award, and will receive up to S$50,000 (US$37,200) in project funding and mentoring.

Winning submissions will be assessed based on the impact, potential outcomes, and depth of innovation. Other judging criteria include the solutions’ ability to be scaled and deployed across the different geographies and asset types of CapitaLand’s properties.

As well as prizes for the winners, other shortlisted participants will stand a chance to trial their innovations on selected CapitaLand properties.

Shortlisted teams will pitch their projects to a panel of judges at a finale event held in May 2021. The challenge is currently accepting submissions until 1 February 2021.

Ideas for CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge can be submitted here.

 

 

By Sonia Sambhi

Source: Eco Business

Super-charged: How Australia’s biggest renewables project will change the energy game

Posted on by dishanth
Super-charged: How Australia’s biggest renewables project will change the energy game

Australia doesn’t yet export renewable energy. But the writing is on the wall: demand for Australia’s fossil fuel exports is likely to dwindle soon, and we must replace it at massive scale.

The proposed Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) will be a huge step forward. It would eventually comprise 26,000 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar energy, generated in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Once complete, it would be Australia’s biggest renewable energy development, and potentially the largest of its type in the world.

Late last week, the federal government granted AREH “major project” status, meaning it will be fast-tracked through the approvals process. And in another significant step, the WA government this month gave environmental approval for the project’s first stage.

The mega-venture still faces sizeable challenges. But it promises to be a game-changer for Australia’s lucrative energy export business and will reshape the local renewables sector.

 

The projects promise enormous clean development opportunities for Australia’s north and will create thousands of jobs in Australia – especially in high-tech manufacturing.

 

Writing on the wall

Australia’s coal and gas exports have been growing for decades, and in 2019-20 reached almost A$110 billion. Much of this energy has fuelled Asia’s rapid growth. However, in recent weeks, two of Australia’s largest Asian energy markets announced big moves away from fossil fuels.

China adopted a target of net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2060. Japan will retire its fleet of old coal-fired generation by 2030, and will introduce legally binding targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

There are signs other Asian nations are also moving. Singapore has weak climate targets, but on Monday inked a deal with Australia to cooperate on low-emissions technologies.

 

Export evolution

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) would be built across 6,500 square kilometres in the East Pilbara. The first stage involves a 10,000MW wind farm plus 5,000MW of solar generation – which the federal government says would make it the world’s largest wind and solar electricity plant.

The first stage would be capable of generating 100 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year. That equates to about 40 per cent of Australia’s total electricity generation in 2019. AREH recently expanded its longer term plans to 26,000MW.

The project is backed by a consortium of global renewables developers. Most energy from AREH will be used to produce green hydrogen and ammonia to be used both domestically, and for shipping to export markets. Some energy from AREH will also be exported as electricity, carried by an undersea electrical cable.

Another Australian project is also seeking to export renewable power to Asia. The 10-gigawatt Sun Cable project, backed by tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes, involves a solar farm across 15,000 hectares near Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. Power generated will supply Darwin and be exported to Singapore via a 3,800km electrical cable along the sea floor.

The export markets for both AREH and Sun Cable are there. For example, both South Korea and Japan have indicated strong interest in Australia’s green hydrogen to decarbonise their economies and secure energy supplies.

But we should not underestimate the obstacles standing in the way of the projects. Both will require massive investment. Sun Cable, for example, will cost an estimated A$20 billion to build. The Asian Renewable Energy Hub will reportedly require as much as A$50 billion.

The projects are also at the cutting edge of technology, in terms of the assembly of the solar array, the wind turbines and batteries. Transport of hydrogen by ship is still at the pilot stage, and commercially unproven. And the projects must navigate complex approvals and regulatory processes, in both Australia and Asia.

But the projects have good strategic leadership, and a clear mission to put Australian green energy exports on the map.

 

Shifting winds

Together, the AREH and Sun Cable projects do not yet make a trend. But they clearly indicate a shift in mindset on the part of investors.

The projects promise enormous clean development opportunities for Australia’s north, and will create thousands of jobs in Australia – especially in high-tech manufacturing. As we look to rebuild the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic, such stimulus will be key. All up, AREH is expected to support more than 20,000 jobs during a decade of construction, and 3,000 jobs when fully operating.

To make smart policies and investments, the federal government must have a clear view of the future global economy. Patterns of energy consumption in Asia are shifting away from fossil fuels, and Australia’s exports must move with them.

John A. Mathews is Professor Emeritus in the Macquarie Business School at Macquarie University. Elizabeth Thurbon is Scientia Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at UNSW Sydney. Hao Tan is Associate Professor with the Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle. Sung-Young Kim (김성용) is Senior Lecturer in the Macquarie School of Social Sciences at Macquarie University. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

 

 

By John Mathews and Elizabeth Thurbon and Hao Tan, Sung-Young Kim

Source: Eco Business