CLIMATE change is getting everyone hot under the collar in the remaining month to Copenhagen. The politicians are raising their hype, playing to their respective lobbies, but the scientists and environmentalists are in no doubt: we are close to irreversible damage. 
Nonsense, the bean counters sniff. The people who hold the purse strings, the sceptics and the plain selfish just want to go on spending lavishly, consuming voraciously, polluting like there was no tomorrow.
The science is in. But how does one get the message across, with all the politics and convoluted sums and arguments, at events such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from Dec 7-18?
Climate change barely rated a mention at the environmental awards presentation at the local council the other night. Sustainability was grandma's common sense.
The environment had meaning. From the traditional owners of the land, to schools and the local church, sustainability is second nature, it would appear.
Sustainable living is not "news", mayor David Cooper would tell those gathered in his council of Knox, in Victoria, to receive the Knox Environment Awards.
Indigenous Australians, traditional owners of the land descended from the longest-surviving culture in the world, have known this going back 40,000 years.
There was no question of choice for them then; it was a matter of survival.
"Modern" Australia for a while lost its way. Now it is discovering the folly of its recent past.
Scientists in their high towers and global and national leaders can debate climate change. On the ground, many are thinking global, acting local.
Councils such as Cooper's are switching light bulbs to energy-saving types, taking ratepayers to the supermarkets to show them how to "buy green", and thinking green in purchase of vehicles.
Knox is one of many councils that support a partnership by state government and business to give and install light bulbs in households for free. In return, households assign carbon credits to the commercial enterprise.
Initiatives such as these may not save the council big bucks, but as Andrew Paxton, Knox manager on sustainability, said at the awards night, the value is in the council "leading by example".
Knox's environment awards have been going for 15 years, in which community organisations, schools, business and individuals are recognised for their achievements on environmental sustainability.
One winner, a church, had no idea there was money in it when it went to its architect five years ago, with the brief to redevelop its building with a small environmental footprint.
It was nominated for the awards to lead by example. The A$1,000 (RM3,000) that came with the award was a surprise bonus.
For members of the church, and others at the Knox awards night, Copenhagen would need no persuasion. Ideas about environmental sustainability flow from the ground up to argument about climate change at the top.
Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui is in good company. Charged with laying the groundwork for Malaysia to head off "two of the world's most pressing issues", he had planned to start "from the ground up".
As with Knox council and others at the local level, grassroots action don't look anything like game-changers.
Chin had had no idea about what local councils in Australia were doing, but the thought had struck him of a campaign to switch households to energy-saving light bulbs.
That was to plant the seeds of the green technology idea that Datuk Seri Najib Razak escalated to policy when he became prime minister in April, creating the ministry that Chin heads.
Green technology is no nostalgic fad to preserve Planet Earth. As Najib put it at the policy launch in July, green technology can drive innovative economic growth.
It can "deliver the double impact" of accelerating economic growth while reducing Malaysia's carbon footprint, at the same time creating "green collar" jobs.
Najib pressed for green technology and carbon capture and storage (CCS) when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd dropped by Kuala Lumpur early in July, on his way to Italy for the G8+ meeting.
Almost all -- 92 per cent -- of Peninsular Malaysia's energy needs come from fossil fuels: 59 per cent from gas and 33 per cent coal, with eight per cent from hydro.
Now Malaysia is building a coal-fired station in Sabah.
"The reduction of CO2 emission is a matter of concern to us," Loo Took Gee, ministry deputy secretary-general (energy), tells the New Sunday Times. "That is why we are moving into renewable energy and energy efficiency, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Coal is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Australia has an interest to keep a lid on it. Coal is the country's biggest export earner.
Rudd had fast-tracked the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) in Canberra, which he launched in April. The institute started work the week Rudd stopped over in Kuala Lumpur.
The two prime ministers agreed that a ministerial visit from Malaysia to Australia could be useful. Which led to Chin heading a nine-person delegation, among them Loo, to Australia.
The delegation called on counterpart ministers, and visited far-flung research centres and marketing operations.
Among the visits were to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, (and wiki here) energy market commission and operator, Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC), GCCSI and Green Building Council of Australia.
Chin was expansive on his ministry's plans during a three-hour drive from Melbourne to Otway to visit Australia's first demonstration of carbon geosequestration, or the storage of carbon dioxide deep underground.
Malaysia had much to learn, while looking ahead to the global exhibition of green technologies in Kuala Lumpur next year, Chin tells the New Sunday Times.
At the same time, the seeds of sustainable living have to be planted in the people, through education campaigns and in initiatives such as changing the light bulbs.
0 green notes:
Post a Comment