Malaysia

Closures affect millions of students as toxic haze from forest fires send air quality plummeting in the region. Thousands of schools have been ordered closed across Malaysia and Indonesia on Thursday, affecting at least 1.7 million students, officials said, as toxic haze from rampant forest fires in Indonesia sent air quality plummeting. Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to suspend classes in Malaysia - including nearly 300 in the smog-hit…

With the specter of global warming looming above our heads, educating the next generation to be eco-friendly is more important than ever. Prof Anthony Wong is making it his mission to do just that with a green thumb and a love for Mother Nature as his main tools. Frangipani Organic Farm, located in the leafy forests of Gombak, is a project pioneered by the 63-year-old…

Survey in Sabah highlights importance of wildlife corridors and commitments to sustainable palm oil and timber. The number of critically-endangered orangutans living in the eastern lowlands of Malaysia's Sabah state declined by as much as 30 percent between 2002 and 2017, even as the overall population across the state remained relatively stable, according to a scientific study published on Thursday. The paper, the most intensive survey…

Lay Sremeth and her family have lived on a narrow stretch of land by Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tompoun lake for three decades, fishing in its water and growing rice on its bank. But shortly after authorities approved filling in parts of the lake with sand and mud 10 years ago to build malls and apartments, they could not fish or farm anymore. Now, with just…

Read the article here: https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2019/07/11/lowering-voting-age-a-first-step-for-climate-action/

PASIR GUDANG: UNSTABLE and ever-changing Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) readings have made it difficult for the authorities to pinpoint the exact source of the latest health scare affecting the Pasir Gudang district. Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said monitoring efforts conducted by 85 experts in high-risk schools yesterday had failed to determine the cause of the air pollution, which…

Malaysia is strongly committed to adhering to the global effort in eradicating single-use plastics in two years. Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said Malaysia fully supported the amended Basel Convention (on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal) that would take effect in 2021. As a first step, she said, Malaysia had put a stop…

Malaysia can generate 1.4 times more electricity if all the roofs in Peninsular Malaysia are fitted with solar panels, compared with the conventional electricity generation of fossil fuel burning. Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said there are over 4.12 million buildings with solar rooftop potential in the peninsula. If all these buildings are fitted with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems,…

Read the article here: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/05/22/malaysia-to-send-back-some-plastic-scrap-to-source/#pb3Zi065FtCTWIUQ.99

KUANTAN, MALAYSIA — Companies and governments around the world are anxiously watching the fate of a sprawling industrial facility 30 kilometers north of this city on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. The 100-hectare Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) produces 10% of the world’s output of rare earth oxides (REOs), minerals needed in technologies including mobile phones, hard drives, fiber optic cables, surgical lasers, and cruise…

Palm oil has become a key ingredient in everyday goods from biofuels to chocolate, leading to a production boom in the world’s top two growers, Indonesia and Malaysia. But green groups blame rapid expansion of plantations for laying waste to the jungle that is home to orangutans and other animals, as well as tribespeople’s lands, and sustained environmental campaigns have damaged its image in the…

Sustainable consumption is an activity defined by population growth, economic activities, technology choices, social values, and policies. In stimulating sustainable consumption, the involvement of the government in environmental issues is fundamental. The role of government is necessary to provide supervision and legislation. The degree of global climate change as evidenced by global warming, ozone layer depletion and a variety of other problem have…

Holistic, Structured At Malaysia Airports, we are keenly observing the global trends. And we are translating many of them into action. To begin with, Malaysia Airports’ CSR is a subset of its corporate sustainability framework and is embedded within the community-friendly organization strategy (see diagram). It covers all-touch points of the company. These include employees, community, environment and ethical business…

Some 90% of the world’s waste is exported, but just 9% of it is recycled. The remainder is either burnt, stored in landfill, or dumped. China’s ban changed the dynamics of the recycling industry China introduced a ban on the import of any plastic less than 99.5% pure in January 2018. It had an enormous impact on the global recycling market, which is…

EU should reconsider the proposal so that it does not affect the livelihood of small farmers, Tiow WengTheongsaid. He said Malaysia had taken the necessary steps and successfully implemented environmental control measures while enhancing the community’s living standards through oil palm cultivation activities. The EU had claimed that Malaysia cultivated oil palm at the expense of damaging the environment, affecting climate change and…

Read content here: https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2018/11/09/one-key-to-change-is-on-our-plates/ Source: Star Online | 9 November 2018

Read the article here: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/09/25/yeo-do-away-with-singleuse-plastic/ Source: The Star Online | 25 September 2018

Read content here: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/09/20/no-to-coal-power-in-sabah-explore-renewable-energy-first-says-wwf/ Source: The Star Online | 20 September 2018

This is the third year it is being celebrated after it was proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) at its 38th General Conference in Paris on Nov 6, 2015. Mangroves are established mainly on sheltered tropical and subtropical coastlines. Although mangroves cover one percent of the earth’s land mass, they play important roles and contribute significantly to global sustainability. Maintaining…

Malaysian Green Technology Corp (GreenTech Malaysia) is currently spearheading a working paper on a potential electric-based second national car project. GreenTech Malaysia CEO Dr Mohd Azman Zainul Abidin (picture) said the national car proposal is being worked on by a high-level committee within the Ministry of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment (METSCE). “The committee is working on a proposal to be presented at…