Sustainable Partnership for Germany & Singapore

On a two day visit to Singapore, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022 can make her country a trailblazer in renewable energy and would reap economic benefits from the move. She also cited a tie-up between Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and Germany’s Technical University in Munich to study the future of transportation and electric vehicles as a key example of how both countries work together to drive innovation in sustainable technology.

BBC Report (30 May 2011):

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said a decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022 can make her country a trailblazer in renewable energy.

Ms Merkel said Germany would reap economic benefits from the move.

Germany is the biggest industrial power to renounce nuclear energy, in a policy reversal for the governing centre-right coalition.

Mrs Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.

The crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami in March, led to mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany.

The anti-nuclear drive boosted Germany’s Green party, which took control of the Christian Democrat stronghold of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in late March.

Analysts say Mrs Merkel may be eyeing a future coalition with the Greens.

Germany’s nuclear power politics

Mrs Merkel said that in its “fundamental” rethink of policy, Germany could set an example for other countries.

“We believe we as a country can be a trailblazer for a new age of renewable energy sources,” the German chancellor was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

“We can be the first major industrialised country that achieves the transition to renewable energy with all the opportunities – for exports, development, technology, jobs – it carries with it.”

She also said that electricity in the future should be “safer and at the same time reliable and affordable”, linking the decision to step back from nuclear power to the crisis in Japan.

“We learned from Fukushima that we have to deal differently with risks,” she said.

Under the German plan the country’s seven oldest reactors – which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis – would never be used again.

An eighth plant – the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, which was already offline and has been plagued by technical problems – would also be shut down for good.

Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022.

The previous German government – a coalition of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens – decided to shut down Germany’s nuclear power stations by 2021.

However, last September Ms Merkel’s coalition scrapped those plans – announcing it would extend the life of the country’s nuclear reactors by an average of 12 years.

The decision to extend was unpopular in Germany even before the radioactive leaks at the Fukushima plant.

Following Fukushima, Mrs Merkel promptly scrapped her extension plan, and announced a review.

Germany’s nuclear industry has argued that an early shutdown would be hugely damaging to the country’s industrial base.

Before March’s moratorium on the older power plants, Germany relied on nuclear power for 23% of its energy.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Aaron Low  in The Straits Times (3 June 2011):  

GERMANY and Singapore enjoy an ideal relationship, thanks in part to a shared commitment to free trade, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday.

Dr Merkel noted that both countries are pushing for greater free trade on the international stage.

She also cited science and technology as a key area in which the two nations had many opportunities to cooperate.

Dr Merkel was speaking at the 31st Singapore Lecture yesterday, on the second day of her two-day visit to the Republic.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who chaired the lecture, said Dr Merkel’s visit affirmed the strong bilateral ties both countries shared.

‘The level of cooperation is deep and wide-ranging, and includes science and research, environmental technology, and culture. Germany is also a major investor in Singapore,’ he said.

Germany and Singapore are close trading partners, with bilateral trade amounting to some $20.5 billion last year, making Germany Singapore’s largest trading partner in the European Union.

It is this belief in the importance of trade that makes the relationship an ‘ideal’ one, said Dr Merkel.

She told the audience that she was disappointed that after 10 years, the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation free trade talks had not progressed.

‘Singapore and Germany are pinning hopes on an open global economy, free trade and reliable investment conditions,’ she said.

She added that one alternative is bilateral free trade agreements. On this front, Germany is supporting the free trade agreement that Singapore is negotiating with the EU, she said.

Research and development is another area to which both countries are firmly committed, she said.

Germany plans to earmark about 3 per cent of its gross domestic product for research and innovation, while Singapore already spends 3 per cent, Dr Merkel noted.

She cited a tie-up between Nanyang Technological University and Germany’s Technical University in Munich to study the future of transportation and electric vehicles as a key example of how both countries work together to drive innovation in sustainable technology.

During the question and answer session of the forum, Dr Merkel was asked about her country’s decision to phase out nuclear power, even as several regional countries here are moving ahead to build nuclear plants.

Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have all announced plans for nuclear power plants while the Singapore Government is doing a feasibility study.

Dr Merkel said that part of the decision to speed up the phasing out of nuclear power was prompted by the nuclear plant meltdown in Japan.

To make up for nuclear power, which supplies 22 per cent of Germany’s power needs currently, she said the German government plans to double the contribution from renewable energy to 35 per cent and lift energy efficiency by 2020.

For countries looking to start up nuclear power, she had this piece of advice: ‘The most important thing is to have to be absolutely safe. One should not save money and cut corners.’

Source: www.lexisnexis.com