MP SPEAKS | M'sia needs legislation to show sincerity in climate commitments

MP SPEAKS | We welcome the presence of Malaysia’s environment and water minister, 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. But as policymakers, our focus should be on the content of what was said by the minister.

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 percent of government fleets to be non-internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030” (Commitment 3), which means to say that the vehicles used by ministers, deputy ministers and the civil service will either be hybrid or electrical vehicles by 2030.

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.

This does not consider the fact that the fuel consumption of the Toyota Vellfire at 8.6L/100km is 36.5 percent 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 five days a week, this translates into 2,000km 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?

Lack of inter-ministry coordination

There are other commitments announced by the minister that raise 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 the Waste to Energy concept and to increase its recycling rate to 40 percent by 2025”.

According to the National Department of Solid Waste Management (JPSPN), 158 out of 165 or 95 percent of our landfills are open and unsanitary landfills (dumpsites). Open and unsanitary landfills emit methane gas, which has a warming potential of 80 times more than CO2 over a 20-year period.

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.

Regressing commitments

In other areas, the commitments of the current government seem to have regressed compared to the commitments by the Pakatan Harapan government.

For example, in Commitment 2, the minister announced a target of 31 percent of renewable energy capacity for power generation by 2025 and 40 percent by 2035 in the national power grid through Malaysia’s Energy Transition Plan 2021 to 2040.

But Harapan’s commitment was for a 33 percent target for renewable energy in the national grid by 2025 (including large-scale hydropower). Why have the targets for renewable energy under the previous PN government and now the Keluarga Malaysia 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 renewable energy target of 35 percent to 40 percent by 2025.

Prioritise low-hanging fruits

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 the Budget 2022 speech after repeating the 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 percent of emission reduction towards net-zero by 2050 does not require carbon pricing.

The government should prioritise 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.

More commitment needed from govt

The goals announced in the eight commitments in the minister’s speech can only be achieved if climate change policies are championed by the prime minister, prioritised across all ministries (and not just the Environment and Water Ministry) and coordinated across different policies.

To realise 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 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. These obligations must be set well in advance so that the business community and other groups have sufficient time to prepare.

The Harapan 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.

YEO BEE YIN is former energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister and ONG KIAN MING is former deputy international trade and industry minister.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.