PUTRAJAYA is paying lip-service to climate change and isn’t showing any sign that it truly understands the impending crisis, an environmental group said in response to the severe flooding in many parts of the country over the weekend.

The Organisation for the Preservation of Natural Heritage Malaysia (Peka) said the government already had the climate change data it needed to make policy changes, but does not seem to be using it to plan for the future.

“The data available has shown evidence of increased flood reports, which have been increasing gradually since 2012.

“This data should have been used to better plan for the future but, sadly, this is not happening,” Peka president Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil told The Malaysian Insight.

Neither has Putrajaya made attempts to spread climate change awareness among the public to change behaviours and lifestyle habits, she added.

“The government has not shown the initiative to educate the public, or enact new climate change laws, or guide people on how we should live to minimise global warming-related effects,” Shariffa added.

Malaysia only named climate change as a ministerial portfolio in 2018 when Pakatan Harapan (PH) became the federal government, reflecting government recognition of the issue at the highest level for the first time.

After PH was ousted through a parliamentary coup in 2020, its Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change ministry was carved up by the subsequent government into three ministries – Environment and Water, Energy and Natural Resources and Science, Technology and Innovation.

Current Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has outlined Malaysia’s climate change commitment in terms of being a carbon-neutral nation by as early as 2050, but observers have raised concerns over the lack of specific action plans to meet this target, and poor implementation.

Shariffa also hoped Malaysians would not return to their usual lifestyles once the current flood disaster is over.

Climate change, manifested in more severe storms, heavier rainfall, more frequent typhoons in the tropics, and colder winters in temperate countries compared to before, is attributed by scientists to human and economic activity that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing global warming.

Policy changes to mitigate temperature rises would entail reducing the use of fossil fuels, such as coal to generate electricity, which Malaysia’s power generation still relies on heavily. Other climate-friendly policies would include greater use of green energy, forest conservation or tree planting, changes to land-use policies to preserve natural habitats to act as carbon sinks, and turning waste to energy.

Lifestyle changes for consumers, meanwhile, would include using less petrol, taking public transport to minimise vehicle pollution and emissions.

Already happening 

Shariffa said climate change is already happening in Malaysia, noting the cold snap Kuala Krai, Kelantan, experienced in 2014 and 2018.

Despite that, she questioned if Malaysia had learnt anything and if it was ready for unusual weather changes.

“The extreme opposite happens during dry seasons with higher and higher temperatures recorded yearly and for a longer duration, than the previous years,” she said.

Lee Jo Kien, the lead analyst of Tropical Rainforest Conservation & Research Centre (TRCRC) and People for Peat, also said climate change is likely to bring about more frequent and unpredictable extreme weather events in Malaysia.

At the national level, he said the data from Global Forest Watch showed that the yearly rate of forest loss over the last two decades has been at around the same level, at 420,000 ha per year.

“This shows that we really aren’t doing things differently in terms of forest conservation despite the decades-worth of climate change warnings and programmes,” the ecologist told The Malaysian Insight.

Forests are carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide, while clearing forests releases the gas and contributes to higher atmospheric temperatures.

Lee suggested that state governments be incentivised to conserve their forests instead of logging them. These proposals are not new, he said.

“Proposed solutions have included a performance-based ecological fiscal transfer from the federal government to state governments that successfully maintain or improve their forest cover.

“Or make changes to the Federal Constitution to improve the distribution of taxes to state governments based on their forest cover,” Lee said.

Data available but poor communication

Universiti Malaya’s Department of Geography Honorary Prof Azizan Abu Samah said even the media showed its ignorance in reporting on the weekend’s floods.

“The media did not help; they used the term ‘flash flood’ which has a different connotation from ‘heavy floods’. So, the urgency was not there,” the meteorologist said.

As to the lack of preparedness by the authorities, Azizan said this was inexcusable in 2021, as the government should have learnt from previous episodes of bad flooding in 2017 and 2014.

“In 2017, the tropical depression developed very fast within 24 hours, and the window to broadcast it (warnings) was small,” he said, referring to the year’s floods in Penang caused by unusually heavy rains resulting from a tropical depression from Typhoon Damrey.

“In 2014, we were then not so clever in terms of weather modelling and simulation,” he said, referring to flooding in December that year in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak and Perlis, and in parts of Sabah.

But today, government agencies have better tools and prediction systems, and should have communicated their knowledge to the public quickly and more efficiently, Azizan added.

He named the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia), the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) and the Department of Drainage and Irrigation.

“They could have held a press conference to emphasise about the impending floods and strongly highlight their warnings to the media,” he said.

MetMalaysia said it detected the recent tropical depression over the South China Sea on December 12.

A month ago, in a November 17 notice, the Selangor government had also issued an alert to state agencies with instructions to prepare for heavy rainfall and possible flooding in November and December.

Its notice was posted on Facebook.Incessant rain began on December 17 over most of the country and lasted till December 18, and was dubbed a “once every 100 years” event by Environment and Water Ministry secretary-general Ir Zaini Ujang.

Nationwide, more than 40,000 people have been displaced due to flooding in Selangor, Pahang, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Terengganu, Kelantan and Perak. Seventeen people have died from the floods as of yesterday (December 21).

Lee, an ecologist with TRCRC, said it is the Malaysian public as taxpayers who foot the bill for disaster relief, and yet they are the losers not only by paying taxes to fund inadequate disaster responses, but also because of the loss of valuable forests.

“Our leaders must do better, but we, too, must continue making our voices heard to help influence the decision-making process,” he said. – December 22, 2021.