This article provides an overview of Malaysia’s contribution to climate change and we would look into the CO2 emissions per capita by Malaysians instead of annual CO2 emissions. The latter serves as the most common indicator used to compare countries’ contribution to climate change but is mostly influenced by population size.
On the other hand, CO2 emissions per capita help us to understand better the “footprint” of the average person in a given country. Based on the figure above, Malaysia’s CO2 emissions per capita since the year 2000 is higher than in China and Indonesia. This trend shows a massive contrast even though China being a leading industrial powerhouse with 1.44 billion population and Indonesia with 274.5 million people. The smaller portion of Malaysian individual is contributing more to climate change on average compared to mainland Chinese and Indonesian.
CO2 emissions in Malaysia are dominated by fuel combustion for energy production. In 2018, oil and coal contributed 66.2% towards Malaysia’s CO2 emissions in energy production. The nation still relies heavily on two of the most polluting fossil fuel on the daily generation of heat and electricity. It is also notable that the transportation sector emerged as the 3rd largest polluting sector in 2017. According to a survey conducted by Rakuten Insight in 2019, about 61% of Malaysian respondents owned a car. The unsatisfactory first-mile and last-mile connectivity in Malaysia’s public transportation are increasing the tendency of people owning private vehicles.
From here onwards, it is vital on how Malaysia moves forward to tackle the alarming carbonisation issue. Most of us eventually understand the various ways to decarbonise the energy system, such as shifting towards renewable energies and battery technologies. However, the utmost vital element always lies in the effective implementation of these solutions across society.
A government-led initiative is needed to reduce carbon emission throughout the country effectively. The government has to conduct extensive studies and work closely with various stakeholders to identify the most effective solution for Malaysia to reduce its carbon footprint. This is followed by translating plans into actions with clear objectives within a specific timeframe.
As of now, GreenTech Malaysia, which comes under the purview of Ministry of Environment & Water is setting an excellent example in driving the application of green technology as a strategic engine of socio-economic growth. In 2011, GreenTech formed the LCCF national framework assessment system to guide the transformation of cities under their jurisdiction into low carbon cities. It is laudable to the point that the framework involved the private sector, academia, industry experts, professional bodies and other relevant agencies. GreenTech has also accelerated the adoption of carbon cities through the Low Carbon Cities 2030 Challenge. Areas zoned as low carbon in state capitals, and low urban cities will follow the guidelines of LCCF to bring down their carbon intensity. The objective is to establish 200 low carbon zones across the country and have at least 1,000 Low Carbon Cities Partners by 2030.
Notably, the Malaysia government is indeed implementing initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions. The critical question here is whether these initiatives are extensive and fast enough to bring down increasing CO2 emissions per capita, as shown earlier in the article. The doubt is not to undermine those decarbonisation efforts implemented by the government. Still, large-scale acceleration is needed to progress fast enough in reducing CO2 emissions across the nation.
The next crucial part falls on the role of the general public. People need to start utilising public transport as much as possible to assist the government in understanding different riders’ behaviour, which leads to better development of the public transport infrastructure. This is a win-win situation as CO2 emissions are reduced, and the government receives more database that benefits future planning. Besides, business enterprises need to comply with industry guidelines when its business activities involve emissions of CO2 such as construction, manufacturing and services.
Again, there is an important question coming into the picture too – Will the public do it? The government could force business enterprises to comply with decarbonisation policies by imposing heavy penalties to those who break the law. Still, they are unable to move the public on certain things, such as taking public transport. Yet, we could argue that providing incentives serves as an easy and direct way to convince the people on practising some daily measurements that contribute towards decarbonisation. First, incentives offered may be inconsistent with the change of government and only work well for the short term. Second, luring the public to practice social responsibility on decarbonisation efforts is not how a civilised nation should progress forward. The public should be participating in every means to cut down emissions by acknowledging the duty of every individual to do so. The core problem is there are not enough of Malaysians upholding social responsibility in their daily lives.
Besides, the public is unaware of the consequences of increasing CO2 emissions around their daily lives because the adverse effects associated do not pain enough to be felt. These accumulating emissions behave like a silent killer that is unconsciously deteriorating the people’s health and the entire living ecosystem. The public shall not wait until severe consequences to happen until they start realising it is too late to take preventive measurements. In my opinion, I believe that real and transformative actions need to be taken by everyone across society to tackle the issue of carbonisation.
- Aside from introducing policy changes, the government needs to work heavily on education. The determining factor for a country to possess socially responsible citizens depends on how civilised they are. As of now, Malaysia’s education system which focuses on student’s academic performance over comprehensive thinking skills and civic education is the main reason behind those social issues existing in the country. How can we expect the public to decarbonise if there are still many people who do not take care of public hygiene or conduct double parking? The government must emphasise on civic education among students in every level of education. Education is the key to build a progressive nation with mature citizens which contribute by any means for the sake of the nation’s benefit.
- Media’s outreach capabilities need to be leveraged to influence the public positively. Various form of media authorities such as newspaper agency, broadcast stations or internet operators needs to alarm the people on the seriousness of climate change and appeal everyone to join the effort in decarbonising the country. They may utilise on consumer analytics or creativity in producing impactful contents to educate the public. The people are exposed to a ton of information through media every day, which indirectly affects their behaviour and thinking. Nowadays, we shall not underestimate the power of media in spreading the word. Suppose different media agencies take a tough stance in promoting decarbonisation among the public consistently. In that case, we will start to witness more Malaysians joining the movement to tackle the carbonisation issue.
- The public need to start taking actions. Anyone can start with different simple steps – drive less, use public transport and walk more where possible, comply with business emission guidelines, reduce the use of paper or stop open burning. These examples do not require considerable effort, and there are much more steps that can be taken. Such small actions taken by every individual collectively will translate into a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions in the long run.
Malaysia could only witness positive results in decarbonisation efforts through a whole national movement. There are various technologies out there for the country to utilise in cutting CO2 emissions, such as Carbon Capturing. However, the central core of decarbonisation depends on the government’s leadership will, facilitation from the private sectors and cooperativeness of Malaysia’s citizens. Each of them has important roles to play, and the absence of any would drag us in the race to cut down the nation’s CO2 emissions. The same concept applies to introduce new national policy or implementing any form of changes in the country. Every stakeholder of society needs to fully participate and commit in their area of responsibilities to achieve the desired outcome. As we look backwards, it is always easier said than done when it comes to decarbonisation exercise or bringing real changes to Malaysia. This is because we are not doing enough and effectively amidst the proposal of different excellent ideas. We need to translate these words into real actions.
Start acting today. Please do it now. Every one of us has the capability and responsibility to contribute, to play your part and to bring changes.
Written by Lim Khey Jian, Intern at 27 Advisory. Currently pursuing his degree in Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester. He takes problems and difficulties as opportunities to grow. He enjoys badminton, football and books related to governance, economics and personal development and aims to contribute to society in any way possible. He believes that Malaysia has a lot of potentials to grow as a country and he is always ready to play his part as the nation moves forward.
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