@ green | March-April . 2024

Malaysia upgrades commitment to reduce carbon emissions intensity to 45 per cent by 2030

Malaysia has also consistently committed to the same goal and has formulated several policy and strategy documents to formalise such a commitment .

Some of the critical documents are MYRER ( Malaysia RE Roadmap ), DTN 2040 ( National Energy Policy 2040 ), LCMB ( Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint ), NETR ( National Energy Transition Roadmap ), and the most recent HETR ( Hydrogen Economy and Technology Roadmap ).

While Malaysia has a commendable record for producing credible policy / strategy documents , the same is not quite so for implementing the documented activities / processes .

However , this is not the case for the HETR , which does not meet the above qualification ( at least in my opinion ).

So , what is Malaysia ’ s status in terms of carbon emissions management ?

Malaysia has experienced not only NZE but even harmful emissions , as shown in the chart below , up to 2004 .

However , the emissions increased for various reasons , including increasing energy use due to economic development , the growing population and affluence leading to a more opulent lifestyle , and land use change .

BY G . LALCHAND

Hence , Malaysia must address the global emission reduction challenge to mitigate climate change concerns in conjunction with the worldwide community . In this respect , Malaysia first committed to COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009 , where it committed to reduce its carbon emission intensity by 40 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2020 .

It was a bold commitment at that time . Subsequently , Malaysia has followed the global trend of attempting to comply with the Paris Agreement at COP 21 in 2015 to restrict global temperature rise to below 2 ° C , preferably to 1.5 ° C by the end of the century .

Malaysia subsequently upgraded its commitment to reduce the intensity of carbon emissions to 45 per cent by 2030 .

Malaysia has continued to make repeated announcements on its commitment to reduce its carbon emission intensity by 45 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2030 .

Such announcements appear like propaganda statements to promote the nation as a seriously concerned global citizen who is

Source : Carbon-free energy : Roadmap for Malaysia 2015

HISTORICAL EMISSIONS - MALAYSIA keen to play its part for the global good in the fight to contain the effects of climate change . Does this practice make any sense ? An ASM ( Academy of Sciences Malaysia ) document , “ Carbon-free energy : Roadmap for Malaysia 2015 , states that the intensity of Malaysia ’ s carbon emissions had been reduced by 33 per cent by 2013 ”.

So , committing to a further reduction of only 12 per cent over 17 years is less than impressive .

Moreover , any attempts or initiatives to achieve NZE by 2050 require actual carbon emission reductions , not emission intensity reductions . Unfortunately , the actual emissions keep increasing even as the intensity reduces , as shown in the charts .

While the NETR has incorporated multiple strategies and “ flagship projects ” to achieve the desired outcomes , there is insufficient evidence to give adequate confidence in their realisation to match the desired objectives . However , the NETR has