We welcome the presence of Malaysia’s Minister of Environment and Water, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, at the recently concluded COP26 in Glasgow. We also welcome the delivery of his speech in Bahasa Malaysia, the national language[1]. But as policy makers, our focus should be on the content of what was said by the Minister of Environment and Water (KASA).
While we agree with the ambitious targets to reduce Malaysia’s carbon footprint as announced by the Minister in Glasgow, we very much doubt that there is across the board agreement and commitment by the rest of the Malaysian government with regards to these targets.
For example, one of the targets announced is the “aspiration for 100% of government fleets to be non-internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2030” (Commitment 3) which means to say that the vehicles used by Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the civil service will either by hybrid or electrical vehicles by 2030[2].
In the meantime, we can see the “sincerity” of the government in wanting to be more eco-friendly in its decision to change the official car of Ministers from a Proton Perdana to a Toyota Vellfire on the basis that the monthly rental for the Vellfire is RM2.80 cheaper than the Proton Perdana.[3]
This does not consider the fact that the fuel consumption of the Toyota Vellfire at 8.6L/100km is 36.5% higher than the 6.3L/100km fuel consumption of the Honda Accord (rebadged as Proton Perdana). Assuming the Ministerial car travels 100km a day for 5 days a week, this translates into 2000km travelled per month. Based on this estimate, the monthly petrol bill for the Vellfire is RM94.3 more than the Honda Accord.
The Vellfire also generates 460kg more in CO2 emissions compared to the Honda Accord! This means that in making the decision to change from a Honda Accord to the Vellfire, there was no consideration taken as to the difference in the environmental impact of the different vehicles! If this is the attitude of the government now, how much can we believe with regards to the government’s commitment to have an eco-friendly government car fleet by 2030?
Table 1: Comparing the Monthly Difference in Petrol Bill and CO2 Emissions between a Toyota Vellfire and Honda Accord (rebadged as Proton Perdana)
There are other commitments announced by the Minister which raises concerns about whether this commitment is shared equally by other Ministries.
For example, Commitment 6 announced by the Minister is the objective of “moving towards Zero Waste directed to landfill through Waste to Energy concept and to increase its recycling rate to 40% by 2025”. According to the National Department on Solid Waste Management (JPSPN), 158 out of 165 or 95% of our landfills[9] are open and unsanitary landfills (dumpsites).
Open and unsanitary landfills emit methane gas, which has the warming potential that is 80 times more than C02 over a 20-year period.[10] Waste to Energy facilities will not be able to replace these landfills in the next 10 years which means that there needs to be a comprehensive plan by the government to clean up these unsanitary landfills as part of our strategy to reduce our methane gas emissions.
Both landfills and Waste to Energy policies are under the Local Government and Housing Ministry (KPKT) and as far as we can see, there has been no significant policies announced and implemented by the current or previous KPKT Minister in both areas especially in terms of the impact on our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
In other areas, the commitments of the current government seem to have regressed compared to the commitments by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government. For example, in Commitment 2, the Minister announced a target of 31% of renewable energy capacity for power generation by 2025 and 40% by 2035 in the national power grid through Malaysia’s Energy Transition Plan 2021 to 2040.
But PH’s commitment was for a 33% target for Renewable Energy (RE) in the national grid by 2025 (including large scale hydropower). Why has the targets for RE under the PN and now the Keluarga Malaysia (KM) government been reduced? Given the fall in the price of Solar PVs and other renewable energy technologies, the government should push for an even higher RE target of 35% to 40% by 2025!
We are also concerned that the government is not thinking strategically in terms of carbon pricing related strategies to reduce GHG emissions. For example, in Commitment 1, the Minister announced the “implementation of carbon pricing policy in phases to support national efforts to reduce GHG emissions”. Carbon pricing to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050 was also mentioned by the Prime Minister in his RMK-12 speech as well as the finance minister in budget 2022 speech after repeating PM’s commitment on carbon neutrality.
This seems to show that Putrajaya believes that carbon pricing is the best policy tool to reduce carbon emission. The eventuality of carbon pricing is carbon tax (although the government has avoided the term so far). But analysis by the WWF and BCG in the Malaysian context estimates that 60% of emission reduction towards net zero by 2050 does not require carbon pricing. (Graph 1 below)
The government should prioritize identifying low hanging fruits which can achieve carbon reduction first without having to resort to a carbon tax. Many of these areas can result in more sustained economic growth and net jobs creation such as renewable energy initiatives, the introduction of smart manufacturing which is less energy consuming and energy efficient building management techniques, just to name a few.
Graph 1: Contribution to reduction in C02 needed for Net Zero by 2050 – 60% of such reductions do not require carbon pricing initiatives
Source: WWF and BCG study entitled: Securing our future: Net Zero Pathways for Malaysia[11]
The goals announced in the 8 commitments in the Minister’s speech can only be achieved if climate change policies are championed by the Prime Minister, prioritized across all Ministries (and not just the Ministry of Environment and Water) and coordinated across different policies.
To realize these goals, we proposed that a Climate Change Act like the one that was passed in the United Kingdom in 2008 and updated in 2019[12] be tabled and passed in Malaysia so that there will be a legally binding “carbon budget” that Malaysia must achieve by 2050.
The writing of such an ambitious bill will have to be done in consultation with various stakeholders from the government, the business community, NGOs, academics and interested private citizens. And these obligations must be set well in advance so that the business community and other groups have sufficient time to prepare.
The PH government was already preparing a policy study for a Climate Change Act to be tabled in 2022 before the Sheraton Move took place.
If the government was serious about our climate change policies post COP26, we should move beyond just focusing on the language of the speech read out by the Minister at COP26 and push for a Climate Change Act to make the eight commitments announced by the Minister a reality.
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Joint Media Statement by Yeo Bee Yin, former Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC) and current Member of Parliament for Bakri and Dr. Ong Kian Ming, former Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and current Member of Parliament for Bangi on the 27th of November 2021.