PUTRAJAYA isn’t showing sincerity in the country’s climate change goals by opting for the petrol-guzzling Toyota Vellfire as opposed to the Proton Perdana, two former cabinet members in Pakatan Harapan (PH) said.

Yeo Bee Yin and Dr Ong Kian Ming said Malaysia had put up ambitious carbon footprint-reduction targets at the COP26 recently, such as aspiring to have 100% of government fleets to be non-internal combustion engines by 2030.

While this means that all vehicles used by ministers, deputy ministers and the civil service will be either hybrid or electrical vehicles, Putrajaya is not even working towards that goal with its recent decision to change ministers’ official cars from Proton Perdana to Toyota Vellfire.

“This does not consider the fact the Vellfire’s fuel consumption at 8.6L/100km is 36.5% higher than the 6.3L/100km fuel consumption of the Honda Accord (rebadged as Proton Perdana). 

“Assuming the ministerial car travels 100km a day for five days a week, this translates into 2,000km travelled per month. Based on this estimate, the monthly petrol bill for the Vellfire is RM94.30 more than the Honda Accord. 

“The Vellfire also generates 460kg more in CO2 emissions compared to the Honda Accord! This means that in making the decision to change from a Honda Accord to the Vellfire, there was no consideration taken as to the difference in the environmental impact of the different vehicles,” Yeo and Ong said in a statement.

“We can see the ‘sincerity’ of the government in wanting to be more eco-friendly in this decision.

“If this is the attitude of the government now, how much can we believe with regard to the government’s commitment to have an eco-friendly government car fleet by 2030?” they asked.

Yeo was energy, science, technology, environment, and climate change minister while Ong was deputy international trade and industry minister when PH was the government. They are also the Bakri and Bangi MPs, respectively.

They were commenting on Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man’s speech at the recent COP26 in Glasgow.

Tuan Ibrahim had announced other doubtful targets, Yeo and Ong said, questioning whether the same commitment to these goals were shared equally by other ministries.

This includes the commitment to move towards turning waste to energy and to increase the national recycling rate to 40% by 2025. 

It involves the Housing and Local Government Ministry but there have been no significant policies announced or implemented by the said ministry.

This is since 158 out of 165 or 95% of our landfills are still open and unsanitary landfills that emit methane gas, Yeo and Ong said citing figures by the National Department on Solid Waste Management.

Another commitment by Tuan Ibrahim’s ministry is the 31% target of renewable energy capacity for power generation by 2025, which is lower than the PH’s government’s commitment for 33% in the same period.

Yeo and Ong questioned why the target had been reduced, especially since the price of solar power and other renewable energy technology has dropped.

“The government should be pushing for even higher renewable energy targets,” they said.

They also raised concerns about the lack of strategy in setting a carbon pricing policy.

Yeo and Ong said Putrajaya should table and pass a Climate Change Act for any of its commitments to reducing carbon footprint to succeed.

The Act must be cover policies across all ministries and include a legally binding “carbon budget” Malaysia must achieve.

They said PH had been preparing a policy study for such an Act, which it planned to table next year, but was derailed when the government was toppled through the “Sheraton move”. – November 27, 2021.