Singapore Outlines Plans To Encourage Use Of Green Technologies
Our transport sector plays an important role, in being able to move people quickly and efficiently, while managing road congestion.
This is critical in keeping Singapore vibrant, green and an attractive place to live, work and play, said Minister Raymond Lim at the opening of the World Urban Transport Leaders Summit 2010.
He outlined key plans to encourage the development and use of green technologies in Singapore.
Speech by Mr Raymond Lim, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the World Urban Transport Leaders Summit 2010, Wednesday 30 June 2010
Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, Good morning:
Welcome and Introduction
A very warm welcome to all of you, and especially to all our friends and guests from abroad. I am pleased to be here today, to join you at the opening of the 2nd World Urban Transport Leaders Summit organized by the LTA Academy.
Urbanisation: Crisis or Opportunity
The theme for this year’s summit is “Transforming Urban Transport for Liveable and Sustainable Cities”. During the course of the 20th century, we witnessed rapid growth of the world’s urban population, from 220 million to 2.8 billion. This trend is set to continue in this century, such that by 2030, that number is expected to reach almost 5 billion.[1]
This explosive growth exerts an immense strain on our limited land, energy, housing, water, transport and other infrastructure.
The challenge is in the planning and development of our cities and towns to meet the explosive demand. For this, we need bold vision, a long-term view, and an emphasis on innovative strategies and policies. For the leaders and experts from around the world gathering here for the next two days, this is an opportunity to share and exchange ideas and best practices to guide us in our common goal of Transforming Urban Transport for Liveable and Sustainable Cities.
The Impact of Urban Transport
While essential to economic prosperity and quality of life, increased land transportation use has created huge challenges to efforts to control pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and traffic congestion. Today, transport accounts for about 19% of global energy use and 23% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. These figures are set to rise in the future and given current trends, transport energy use and CO2 emissions are expected to increase by nearly 50% by 2030 and more than 80% by 2050.[2]
In addition, traffic congestion costs the world billions of dollars’ worth of productive time, in addition to wasted energy and pollution.
Sustainable Transport Strategies to Meet the Challenges
Singapore is in a very unique situation. We are a small city state, and our challenge has been to meet the needs of a growing population within a limited land area. Our transport sector plays an important role, in being able to move people quickly and efficiently, while managing road congestion. This is critical in keeping Singapore vibrant, green and an attractive place to live, work and play.
In 2008, we launched our Land Transport Masterplan, which maps out our land transport development for the next 10-15 years. Through three strategic thrusts, the Masterplan aims to meet growing transport demand by: first, making public transport a choice mode. Second, managing road usage. And third, meeting diverse needs, which include that of the elderly, physically challenged, pedestrians and cyclists.
Making Public Transport a Choice Mode — Expansion of Mass Transit
Mass transit is the most energy efficient method of moving large numbers of commuters quickly. Our target to raise the public transport modal share during morning peak hours to 70% by 2020 from 59%[3] today will be one of our most significant measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land transport. To achieve this target, we are doubling our rail network and developing better integrated and seamless connections between our bus and rail services.
Demand Management for Road Usage
In addition to a well integrated rail and bus network which is essential in making public transport more attractive, other transport demand management measures such as the control of vehicle ownership and usage are critical in managing congestion here in Singapore. Singapore is the first city to introduce congestion pricing, through our Area Licensing Scheme and later on, our Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system. Congestion pricing gives us smoother-flowing traffic, which in turn allows vehicles to achieve better fuel economy, reduce energy consumption and consequently reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Since it was implemented in 1998, our ERP system has been functioning on a gantry-based system. If you drive along our roads, you will see such gantries particularly around the Central Business District and heavily-used stretches of our highways and roads. Vehicles are charged as they pass under these gantries when they are in operation. This system has served us well. However, as the number of vehicles on our roads increases over the longer term, congestion will become more extensive. It may become impractical to continue installing ever more physical gantries to manage congestion. We will therefore have to explore other solutions that would enable a more effective approach to implement congestion pricing which will help reduce the dependence on physical gantries.
With emerging technologies available, our Land Transport Authority has been studying potential technology applications for our second generation ERP system. One of the key technologies identified is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) which makes use of satellites to determine the position of a vehicle.
The LTA will soon be calling for a tender to invite industry players to submit technical proposals. The LTA will be conducting various technical tests to evaluate if the latest technologies available in the market today are accurate and effective enough for use as a congestion charging tool, especially taking into consideration the dense urban environment in Singapore. We expect the development and testing of new ERP technologies that are suitable for Singapore’s conditions to take some years, before it is ready to be launched and implemented.
Green Technologies
We are also looking into how we can encourage the development and use of green technologies in Singapore. To nurture green businesses and clean tech industries, we are test-bedding clean technologies in the transport sector. Examples include energy efficient lighting for traffic and street lights, recycled materials for road pavement construction, and construction methods that minimise the impact on the environment.
To improve the living environment, we are embarking on test-bedding programmes of green transport technologies such as the trial of diesel hybrid buses and diesel particulate filters in conjunction with the vehicle emission test laboratory (VETL) which was set up in October 2009. The application of these technologies, if successful, would significantly reduce air pollutant emissions from diesel-driven vehicles.
Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles (EVs) can offer significant advantages in pollution reduction and energy efficiency as compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. As such, car manufacturers like General Motors, Renault-Nissan, BMW, Mitsubishi and Tesla have started manufacturing electric vehicles.
Countries are looking towards electric vehicles and the use of other clean and efficient transport technologies as growth opportunities in smart transportation. Israel has announced aggressive plans to go electric for their cars from 2011 and London has pledged to be the electric capital of Europe. In the United States, Los Angeles and San Francisco have been named 2 of the top EV cities in the country. Seoul introduced its first electric bus in April this year, and will be launching replacement of its buses and taxis with electric or hybrid vehicles over the next 10 years.
Singapore too, is an ideal location for electric transport solutions due to its well-developed R&D capabilities, robust electrical grid, advanced IT infrastructure and compact urban environment. An Electric Vehicle Taskforce co-chaired by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and LTA has been established to spearhead the EV test-bedding programme to assess the feasibility of the EV technology in our transport eco-system.
The Taskforce has taken a multi-pronged approach to drive the EV test-bedding programme. To encourage the take-up of electric vehicles—which are priced much higher than petrol and diesel-driven vehicles— vehicular tax exemption will be given to attract participation in the test-bedding trial.
The EMA and LTA will jointly develop the necessary charging infrastructure to ensure convenient access to the electricity grid. In conjunction, a technical reference for the electric vehicle charging stations has also been developed. EMA and LTA have also requested for proposal to appoint a Charging Service Provider, which will deploy the charging infrastructure in tandem with the take up of the EV test-bed programme. The agencies have received good responses to the request and are evaluating them now. The outcome will be made known soon. With the establishment of an electric charging infrastructure, and the commencement of the test-bedding trial with the delivery of Mitsubishi iMiEVs models, Singapore will now be a step closer to going electric.
Concluding Remarks
In closing, I would like to say that a world class urban transport system is vital in fulfilling a country’s aspiration to be a vibrant, global and sustainable city.
I hope that this two-day summit will give you ample opportunities to network, exchange views and share your experiences on these vital issues.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you a productive summit and a pleasant stay in Singapore. Thank you.
Topics: 2010, ADB, Asia, Asia Pacific region, Asian Development Bank, business, Cities Development Initiative for Asia, developing countries, eco friendly, economic development, economic growth, Economy, electric vehicles, environment, experience, Governance, government, green technologies, holistic approach, information, infrastructure, innovation, Minister Raymond Lim, moniter, monitor, networking, news, Pacific, public transport, safety, Security Review, Singapore, society, sustainable cities, terror, transport network, tropical issues, urban solutions, urban transport, World Urban Transport Leaders Summit
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