The need to go green

By LESTER KONG

The newly established Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry is making a stand to promote green technology to reduce the country’s carbon footprint and damage to the environment.

Malaysia has to go green soon or risk completely using up valuable resources in the country and reducing its natural heritage to nothing.

To reduce the country’s carbon footprint and damage to the local environment, the newly established Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry is now making a stand to promote green technology.

Dr Halim: We risk using up valuable resources and reducing our natural heritage to nothing.

Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Dr Halim Man said that green technology meant using resources such as energy and water minimally if not efficiently to develop and produce goods and services.

“Any technology to produce or develop products and services which contributes to emissions such as carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases must be reduced through awareness in this initial stage and further through enforcement,” he said in an interview at his Putrajaya office.

Even the ministry’s building in the nation’s administrative capital had incorporated ‘green’ aspects such as recessed glass panels on its windows to reduce the amount of heat seeping through, thus reducing the amount of energy that is needed to power air-conditioners to cool the building.

The Government’s effort to develop green technology could be seen from two aspects, according to Dr Halim.

“First is innovation, namely to create or develop green technology that are environmentally friendly and practical.

“It is vital to encourage students to invent green technology that are simple. In the tertiary levels, researchers could also be encouraged to produce products that did not waste energy and water. These innovations could then be commercialised for local consumption and export,” he said.

Secondly, he said, the Government also wanted to promote the use or application of green technology in both work processes and daily practices.

“For example, we can carry drinking water in our own containers instead of buying mineral water bottles. If we buy food to bring home, we can use our own food containers without relying on styroform or unenvironmentally-friendly plastic,” he said.

On energy efficient appliances, Dr Halim said the ministry was working on an Energy Efficiency Master Plan to introduce such as labeling of energy efficient equipment, minimum energy, energy performence standard, to ensure that energy is use more efficiently in the country.

“This is like what Japan, Thailand and Germany have. We have to model after these countries,” he said.

He gave the example of China having enacted regulations that require motorcycles in Beijing to use batteries instead of highly-polluting two-stroke engines in motorcycles.

Dr Halim said the ministry was now in the process of developing a National Green Technology Policy that it planned to roll out on July 24.

“We anticipate the need for legal and regulatory framework for green practices and technology. In terms of research and development, we must encourage this.

“We must also have more people trained in green technology through the local universities,” he said, adding that the ministry is already collaborating with the Higher Education Ministry to come up with the syllabus on green technology.

“Now it is time to hinge on green technology. We are also looking into how we can collaborate with overseas universities on green technology,” he said.

Dr Halim pointed out that it was all about creating awareness and educating the public about why Malaysian homes and businesses had to switch to using renewable energy and energy-efficient sources.

“We need to spend a lot of time and money on public education to create awareness on green technology. The reason is to have sustainable development,” he said.

One of the key ways to encourage homes and businesses is to switch to using green technology was through the Green Building Index (GBI), developed by the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) and Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia (ACEM).

Buildings that incorporate PAM’s six key criteria – energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, sustainable site planning and management, materials and resources used, water usage efficiency and innovation – will be given a GBI rating.

“Any buildings with these criteria will have very low carbon footprint, for instance, energy used to cool the building will be low. These are all elements of design, so that buildings would not need cooling system that consume a lot of energy. Buildings that are compliant to the ratings will be considered green buildings,” he said.

He added that the capital outlay for green buildings will be higher.

“But in the long run, you save a lot in water and electrical costs. It would cost about 10% higher to develop and build but in terms of savings, you gain it back in a short time. If you had solar cells, you could even gain more power than is consumed,” he said.

Dr Halim said most people did not realise the extent of environmental costs generated through home and industrial waste.

“This is the cost you have to pay to mitigate environmental damage. Like plastic clogging the rivers and other water bodies. What is the environmental cost for you to mitigate these situations? If we drive a car, we are polluting the environment and it takes a lot to clean it up. Rubbish by the road and in rivers are visible and we can spend money to clean it up. But what about climate change? You cannot pay money to clean up greenhouse gases. In the end, society loses,” he said.

Dr Halim explained that economic growth was coupled with energy consumption and usage.

“The higher, the growth, the higher the energy use. Some countries are trying to ‘decouple’ this trend. That means you still have economic growth but your energy consumption is limited.

“In Malaysia the growth of energy consumption was parallel to economic growth”.

“The growth was not exponential but very sharp. We had grown very fast during (former Prime Minister) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s time,” he said, adding that the highest energy consumption per capita in the region was Singapore.

He said Malaysians had to understand that sustainable development and care for the environment is the goal that must be made centre stage now.

“We can develop without damaging the environment. At the end of the day, it’s not just about economic growth but also sustainable development.

“Future generations must not have less than what we have now. We need to slow down the process of destruction on the environment. If we don’t practice green technology now, it will be too late,” he said.

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