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• Biofuel for marine and aviation sector The policy document proposed to explore the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil ( HVO ) for aviation and marine to enable higher blends of biofuels in transport and industrial use .
My concern is that , approximately 10 years ago , we tried to take this route by adding biofuel extracted from palm oil into diesel . It failed .
Why has it failed ? Because the market automatically pays a higher price for edible vegetable oil to be used for cooking and beauty products ( soap , cosmetics ) than for it to be used as fuel for energy . No sensible supplier will sell it cheaper as a fuel for energy .
Without financial sense , no matter how ‘ canggih ’ ( advanced ) the engineering or technology is , it is doomed to fail .
Summary
Our National Energy Policy vision is hardly aligned with the global vision of Net Zero by 2050 . Without a more ambitious goal , we are at risk of being left behind by other nations . Malaysia is also at risk of becoming an outcast trading partner because products from Malaysia will be high in embodied carbon if we cannot correct this .
There is a viewpoint that we can rely on our forest as a carbon sink to claim
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carbon neutrality . Without serious work to reduce carbon emissions , carbon neutrality will lead to a considerable outcry of cheating and greenwashing . In addition , the forest belongs to the government , and it won ’ t be easy to extend to our manufacturers and other private entities . These will cause Malaysian products to have high embodied carbon , inviting trade barriers for us .
On the other hand , if we put in a more ambitious goal , Malaysia has the opportunity to lead all tropical climate nations in reducing carbon emissions . The lesson learnt in reducing carbon emission via energy efficiency and renewable energy can be exported for more inflow of foreign income into our economy . Moreover , Malaysian competitively priced products ( due to high efficiency ) with zero embodied carbon will be prioritised as products that are exported worldwide .
Moreover , if we do not need to rely on our forest as a carbon sink to achieve carbon-neutral status , this carbon sink can be repackaged as a nature-based carbon offset , which can be sold to overseas buyers . It will bring in foreign income annually to Malaysia and potentially replace oil and gas as a significant income provider .
The National Energy Policy can make or break Malaysia . The current ambition
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in this policy is severely lacking . If we continue with such an unambitious path , we are falling back into a downward spiral from which we may not be able to climb . I highly recommend Malaysia have more courage to commit to a more ambitious goal . We are as capable as the rest of the world , and we can do this right .
As an ending note , I would like to say that Asians have a ‘ face-saving ’ culture . This piece of opinion about our National Energy Policy could have hurt someone ’ s ego and put a target on my back . I urge you not to get angry but to consider these opinions as added data points . The world is changing so fast that anyone ( including myself ) can be right today and wrong tomorrow . By voicing our opinions and listening to feedback , it can help us expose flaws in how we think . If we can reflect on these flaws and correct them , we are only building a better version of ourselves and , eventually , a better version of Malaysia . – @ Green
CK Tang provides consultancy in Net Zero and Sustainability in Buildings . CK has written two books on energy efficiency in buildings , developed software , and is frequently engaged by international organisations such as DANIDA , UNDP , UNEP , ADEME , and World Bank .
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There is much groundwork before considering large-scale energy storage and the hydrogen economy . Without addressing clean energy more aggressively , we will be wasting our money on energy storage and the hydrogen economy .” |