Monday, January 13, 2003

Rise in greenhouse gas emissions

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia needs to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions to ensure sustainable development, said the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia.

Its executive director Gurmit Singh said the emissions increased from 3.8 tonnes per capita in 1994 to 5.7 tonnes in 1998.

“This is not normal and the rate of increase is too high. It means there is an inefficient use of energy for development in this country,” he said at the Meteorological Services Department here.

He said that in 1994, Malaysia emitted 144 million tonnes of greenhouse gases of which 68.7 million tonnes were absorbed by trees.

Although by international standards, industrialised nations had values three to five times higher, Malaysia should not be complacent, he added.

“Among Asean countries, our emission value is the third highest after Brunei and Singapore and we are doing little to bring it down,” he said.

Gurmit Singh said a draft Malaysian Climate Change Action Plan prepared by the Malaysian Climate Change Group to stabilise the country's emission of greenhouse gasses had been submitted to the Science, Technology and Environment Ministry.

The draft, among other things, recommends creating more awareness among government departments on climate change, a study on its impact and to decrease the transportation sector's growth in greenhouse emissions.

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