Greenpeace Malaysia demands for environmental and climate-conscious state assembly in upcoming elections.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17 July 2023 – Greenpeace Malaysia crosses six state legislative assemblies with ‘#Vote4Climate’ banner to demand for political parties to nominate candidates who can speak for reducing plastic pollution, preserving clean air, protecting diversity, and increasing renewable energy in the state assemblies. Malaysians have the right to vote for environmental and climate-conscious candidates on the polling day.
The challenge is that our current system allows the pursuit of limitless economic growth without proper regulations, which becomes a huge source of environmental and climate injustice and exploitation threatening vulnerable communities, biodiversity, environmental degradation, our health and the economy. In Malaysia, the State governments play crucial roles in land-use, land policies, built environment, planning and administration; many environmental issues can be and should be addressed at state and local levels. The upcoming six state elections provide a crucial opportunity for people to make a real difference through their votes.
PLASTIC POLLUTION
Plastic pollution continues to be a significant climate issue and toxic waste problem to our environment by polluting rivers and our ecosystem, harming marine life across Kedah, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. Plastic contains and can leach as many as 13,000 hazardous chemicals, which researchers say at least 3,200 of are chemicals of concern [1]. In addition to hazardous chemicals, microplastics threaten our health with estimates of 78,000 and 204,000 annual microplastic particles consumed per person based on a study in 2019 [2]. While the process of producing plastics itself, from extraction, distribution and disposal has significant climate impacts. Recycling in general can be an effective way to reclaim natural material resources but not plastics. The problem with plastic recycling lies not with the concept or process but with the material itself [3]. The state governments should recognise the issues of toxic plastic waste and adopt reduce, reuse and refill principles in treating plastic pollution.
CLEAN AIR
Concerns on forest issues continue to surface as the Malaysians are expected to experience haze worsened by El Nino while the world records its hottest day for the third time in a week early this July. According to Global Forest Watch, fire alerts peaked on April 10 with 373 alerts with Kelantan experiencing peat fires [4] resulting from heatwaves, exacerbating climate change disaster risk. While a total of 6,634 fire alerts [5] were experienced between July 2020 and July 2023. Additionally peat and forest fires such as these resulting from forest and peat degradation worsens ambient air pollution and human health, which in 2019 was estimated to cost Malaysia RM 303 billion annually [6]— or 20% of the country’s GDP. Besides preserving peatlands and protecting its forest cover, the state government should commit to recognising the right to clean air as a human right. In decision-making processes all state agencies should always consider its impacts on air quality.
BIODIVERSITY
Many states are facing loss of biodiversity due to massive developmental and agricultural projects affecting forests and oceans among others. Concerns on forest have been raised regarding monoculture farming, unnecessary development and mega hydropower projects, as well as legal and illegal logging. According to Global Forest Watch [7], there were 606,927 deforestation alerts reported in Malaysia between 13 and 20 June of this year (2023), covering a total of 7.45kha. These issues lead to biodiversity loss that creates additional problems such as more frequent human wildlife conflicts [8] due to segregated forests and extreme loss of the forest area [9] for them to roam. Issues relating to marine biodiversity loss are mega land reclamation projects, which affect marine wildlife of the proposed and surrounding ocean areas. The most prominent example being the Penang south islands reclamation project [10]. It will also affect the livelihood of fisherfolk and risk permanent damage in the environmentally sensitive area. State governments should work together to halt environmentally devastating projects such as these in order to sustain and ensure the balance between its citizens’ livelihoods and surrounding wildlife are in mutual harmony.
CLIMATE & ENERGY
While on the climate and energy front, Malaysia recommitted itself to reducing its carbon intensity against GDP by 45% by 2030 in the recent COP26 [11]. In March of this year, the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad announced Renewable Energy (RE) installed capacity represents 25% of the total power mix [12]. However the most recent data in SEDA’s Malaysia Renewable Energy Roadmap [13] shows solar to make up only 4.27% of the total power mix (based on previous 23.5% total power mix), despite Malaysia being established as one of the world’s major exporters of solar PV. The state government could work directly with the Federal government enforcing the adoption of solar PV as well as providing more incentives for the solar panel users or RE users in promoting the adoption of solar PV. This is aligned with the Federal Government’s objective in providing a clean and just energy transition and indirectly enhancing the nation’s solar energy capacity percentage.
Thing Siew Shuen Greenpeace Malaysia Senior Programme Manager said:
“Malaysians have a right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment championed by environmentally and climate-conscious elected representatives who prioritise the well-being of people and our planet above singularly profit-driven goals. Real solutions already exist, namely protecting and restoring our existing natural environment, reducing production and use of unnecessary plastic, while transitioning to solar renewable energy.”
“Issues such as deforestation for land use change and unsustainable practices, forest and peat fires as well as plastic pollution are intensifying climate change disasters such as floods and droughts; threatening our health and economy by driving biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. As human beings, we have taken a lot from nature, can we leave some space for other species or animals? ”
“Greenpeace Malaysia calls for citizens to #UndiIklim，demand for climate justice by voting for State Assemblymen who prioritise climate justice and are committed to data transparency while implementing effective environmental policies. We need state representatives who will raise the environmental challenges such as these to the forefront at the state level by pushing for a Climate Change Act, Transboundary Haze Pollution or Clean Air Act and the revising of our 1974 Environmental Quality Act.”
Notes:
[1]https://www.unep.org/resources/report/chemicals-plastics-technical-report
[2]Human Consumption of Microplastics, Cox et. al
[3]https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/01/plastic-history-climate-change/621033/
[4]https://www.bharian.com.my/berita/nasional/2023/04/1093015/kebakaran-tanah-gambut-di-beris-lalang-hampir-pulih
[5]https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/MYS/
[6]https://www.greenpeace.org/malaysia/press/49795/the-state-of-air-quality-in-malaysia/
[7]https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/MYS/
[8]https://www.thestar.com.my/news/2022/01/17/drone-footage-shows-logging-at-tiger-habitat-near-orang-asli-village-claims-activist
[9]https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/04/27/minister-92-tapirs-ended-up-as-roadkill-over-last-five-years/1969779
[10]https://www.nst.com.my/property/2023/06/923286/penang-south-islands-reclamation-work-starts-july-1
[11]https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/MALAYSIA_cop26cmp16cma3_HLS_EN.pdf
[12https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/03/890899/malaysias-renewable-energy-supply-now-25pct-right-track-achieve-2025
[13]https://www.seda.gov.my/reportal/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MyRER_webVer-1.pdf