KUALA LUMPUR (May 12): The government should take the opportunity now to invest in more greener initiatives to further lower emission levels, before they get worse, says Climate Governance Malaysia (CGM).

CGM founder Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar noted that the the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent worldwide lockdown have proven to be good for climate change.

Sunita, however, stressed world governments must continue to be committed to reducing emissions even after the lockdown ends, to prevent a reverse impact.        

According to the BBC, a number of different analyses show emissions this year will fall by 4%-8%, somewhere between two and three billion tonnes of the warming gas. That's between six and 10 times larger than during the last global recession, it said.

Speaking at a conference call hosted by CGM with various climate change stakeholders today, Sunita said: “During the last financial crash, there was an overall dip in emissions but this quickly rebounded, leading to an all-time high.”

“So, we’ve seen that nature is very resilient, and in three weeks, our rivers can become clean again. However, we are still recording the highest levels of greenhouse concentration in history.

“Health ministers acknowledge there is a systemic weaknesses and there are vulnerabilities in the global community’s ability to respond. We aren’t even able to track this accurately,” she added.

Sunita said the surrounding Asian region is extremely susceptible to multiple climate hazards such as increasing flooding in Malaysia, and this a threat that is yet to be fully accounted for in climate models.

The global temperature is expected to rise by 1.5 degree celsius in the next 10- to 30 years. In 2015, Malaysia signed the Paris Agreement, pledging to reduce 45% of carbon emission by 2030.

“What can government’s role be? I think a small investment up front is going to save us tremendous costs down the road,” Sunita said.

“The government does not need to make this investment. It just needs to send out the right signals and provide the right incentives, regulatory framework and the private sector or capital markets will then be able to take the signal from that. So, not only a combination of the right signals and framework, but also a consistency in approach is needed.

“One of the things that the private sector is lacking is the availability of information. So, for example, what does the 1.5 degree warmer scenario look like in Malaysia? How can we work closely with our neighbouring countries?”she added.

Noting that two historic agreements — the Agenda 2030 and the Paris agreement — were signed in 2015, Sunita said it showed countries can work together, if there is a necessity.

“But now, we are five years down and with a one virus pandemic, we seem to be really struggling. So it raises a concern when it comes to multiple climate hazard risks that we just aren’t ready to manage,” she added.

CGM is the Malaysian chapter of the Climate Governance Initiative, a project hosted by the World Economic Forum.