On the carbon footprint trail
New Straits Times 1 May 10;
THE Centre for Environment, Technology and Development, Malaysia (Cetdem) will study low carbon development once it establishes a think tank by the end of the year.
"Many people are talking about low carbon development so we want to see how we can do this in Malaysia," says Cetdem chairman Gurmit Singh. He revealed this at a press conference to announce the initiatives the organisation is taking after 25 years of existence.
For the next 25 years, Cetdem will be looking at, among others, expanding the scope of its work by setting up a think tank -- which will function as a section within the organisation -- that will examine sustainable development issues.
"Currently there is no think tank dedicated to environmental issues," says Gurmit, adding that it will work on long-term programmes on sustainable solutions, especially through the marriage of sustainable development and green technology.
The closest equivalent, he adds, is the Institute for Environment and Development (or its Malay acronym, Lestari), under Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, which does research and capacity building in sustainable development.
This is why Cetdem feels there is a need for an independent think tank in Malaysia and is looking at the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research as a possible model.
The organisation is now trying to raise the RM1 million needed to set up and run the think tank for the first four years.
Only then would it start identifying the core researchers to manage the think tank and possible collaborators to work with.
"It will study issues related to energy and environment, especially low carbon economy and development," says Gurmit.
Countries around the world are seeking to become low carbon economies -- which have minimal output of greenhouse gas, specifically carbon dioxide -- to try and mitigate global warming.
Cetdem was founded in 1985 as an independent, non-profit, training, research, consultancy, referral and development organisation.
In its existence, it has sought to demonstrate sustainable solutions on environmental issues in the Malaysian context. It has worked at the community, public and professional levels in energy efficiency, sustainable farming and sustainable transportation.
Aside from the establishment of the think tank and sustaining its current work on energy, climate change and organic farming, Cetdem will be deepening its work on transportation issues; venturing into addressing water issues and developing innovative ideas on the use of green and sustainable technology beyond the National Green Technology Policy.
Under its sustainable farming programme, Cetdem had operated the first organic farm from 1986 to 1996, contributed to the development of Malaysian Organic Farming standard and certification scheme, organised exhibitions, short courses, farm visits and projects such as the Community Initiative on Household Waste Composting in Petaling Jaya as well as run the Organic Farming Community Centre.
Hari Organik, an event Cetdem has been organising every three to four months since last year, has been gaining popularity since its inception.
"I noticed more Malay families had turned up for the latest one recently," says Organic Farming Project coordinator Tan Siew Luang, adding that it is an encouraging sign that more are becoming aware of the benefits of organic food and healthy living.
In a Learning Curve article titled The Organic Crowd (Oct 11, 2009), it was noted that the majority of the visitors to Hari Organik were ethnically Chinese.
Cetdem executive director Anthony Tan had attributed this occurrence to the media that had promoted the event (primarily a Chinese language radio station) and the venue itself (Section 19 -- where the event is held -- together with its neighbours SS2 and Sections 14 and 17 are mostly populated by Chinese).
Activities in this area will continue under the Organic Farming Community Centre in Section 19, which acts as a model for keeping an organic farm in an urban environment.
Cetdem also intends to conduct a baseline study of all the state capitals' public transport ridership, mobilise an awareness campaign to motivate people to use better public transport and lobby the new Land Public Transport Commission to improve the quality of public transportation.
After three years, it aims to assess the impact of these measures.
"We've heard that public transport ridership in Malaysia is only 17 per cent, while some claim it's 30 per cent.
"But we don't know where these figures come from," says Gurmit.
Cetdem will also be tackling the National Green Technology Policy, which Gurmit says does not really examine the role or the promotion of clean technologies, or pollution prevention technologies, and to look at cradle to cradle technologies -- where products can be used and later disassembled to be reused in other ways.
The organisation also wants to tackle unresolved water issues, such as whether Malaysians are optimally utilising their water resources for end use in various areas and if the current method of repairing water pipes is the most efficient.
Whatever it undertakes, Cetdem strives to put into practice sustainable solutions that can be duplicated.
"The biggest drawback with many activities in Malaysia is that there is there is a lot of awareness building but no follow-up and no practical solutions that people can adopt," says Tan, adding this is where Cetdem is different.
And that is one of the strengths that Cetdem will use in its growth in coming years.
