Government does the math on green push

July 29, 2008
Government does the math on green push
Panel looks at incentives for developers, makes plans for long haul
By LEE U-WEN AND JAMIE LEE

(SINGAPORE) By the time the government unveils the next Budget in
February, it should be much clearer as to where Singapore's
sustainable development journey is headed over the next 10 to 15
years.

The government is trying to balance the costs and benefits of going
green, in a manner that will not upset economic development, said the
Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development at a press
conference yesterday that was fronted by five ministers.

One question raised during earlier dialogue sessions with property
developers is whether current incentives are enough to encourage
developers to go green, noted the committee that was set up five
months ago.

'We have been giving incentives for developers to adopt a green
mark,' said Mah Bow Tan, committee co-chairman and Minister for
National Development, referring to programmes such as the Green Mark
incentive scheme under the Building and Construction Authority (BCA),
which pays out cash grants of up to $3 million to developers that
construct buildings of high environmental standards.

'We are now discussing, are these incentives enough?' added Mr Mah.

A City Developments spokesperson told BT that the company now invests
up to 5 per cent of the construction cost of a property development
to incorporate green design and features.

BCA Green Mark cash incentives 'did not have a material impact' in
cost savings for green buildings but such financial incentives would
push its peers to go green, the spokesperson added.

While all options are still on the table, the government said that it
would be more cautious over implementing any legislation.

The other committee co-chairman Yaacob Ibrahim, who is also the
Environment and Water Resources Minister, said: 'We have to study
very carefully whether we want to move towards the area of
legislation. Some countries have gone ahead of the curve, at a great
cost sometimes to businesses and the community.'

This caution also applies to subsidising solar energy production
through feed-in tariffs that have been implemented in other countries
such as Germany.

'Our position has been that we should avoid subsidies because that
tends to create an artificial demand,' said Senior Minister of State
for Trade and Industry S Iswaran.

'The right thing to do is to price in the (carbon) emissions, not to
subsidise solar,' adding that Singapore would continue to focus on
its R&D efforts in this renewable energy sector.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam called for a 'pragmatic and
measured' approach to going green, even as he highlighted the fact
that some initiatives could mean having to fork out more in the short
term but reaping greater cost savings over time.

'We will avoid extremes such as going green regardless of costs,'
said Mr Shanmugaratnam. 'The idea is to weigh these costs against the
short and long-term benefits. There will be no sudden increase in
costs.'

Following its dialogue sessions with the private sector, the
committee now plans to widen the 'national conversation' by gathering
feedback from the public through means such as a new website
(www.sustainablesingapore.gov.sg).

The government will compile the feedback at the end of two months and
prepare a framework that will be ready by next year's Budget, said Mr
Mah.