Issues on Climate Change

The climate crisis is an existential threat to life on Earth. To reduce the magnitude of the crisis’ impacts, we must limit global warming to 1.5°C, as decided in the Paris Agreement. Only decisive action will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for climate change. As an independent monitoring tool, the CCPI has a leading role in informing on the Paris Agreement’s implementation phase.

Since 2005, the CCPI has provided analysis of countries’ climate protection performance. It creates transparency in climate policy, makes it possible to compare climate protection efforts, and lets you see progress and setbacks.

In 2020, Malaysia was ranking 53th out of 61 countries with the climate change performance index of 34.21. From here, I found that Malaysia was actually quite weak in combating the climate change.

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Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

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Issues

In Malaysia, forecast have been made on climate modeling using 14 GCM’s (Global Climate Models) which shows that Malaysia could experience temperature changes from 0.7 to 2.6 degree Celsius and precipitation changes ranging from -30% to 30%.

In general, Malaysia could be considered as a free zone from climate related disaster. However, mild climate related disasters are quite frequent to happen lately.

1. Agriculture

The agriculture sector contributed 7.1 per cent (RM101.5 billion) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019. Oil palm was the major contributor to the value added of agriculture sector at 37.7 per cent followed by other agriculture (25.9%), livestock (15.3%), fishing (12.0%), forestry & logging (6.3%) and rubber (3.0%).

Several factors directly connect climate change and agricultural productivity:

• Average temperature increase

• Change in rainfall amount and patterns

• Rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2

• Pollution levels such as tropospheric ozone

• Change in climatic variability and extreme events

Direct and indirect effect of the extreme climate change:

• Physical damage

• Loss of crop harvest

• Drop in productivity, vigour and others (Areas prone to drought can become marginal or unsuitable for the cultivation of some of the crops, such as rubber, oil palm, cocoa and rice, thus posing a potential threat to national food security and export earnings.)

The occurrence of disaster due extreme climate change such as floods has damaged an estimate of RM 84 million worth of agriculture produce or losses affecting 7000 farmers. As much as 6% of land planted with oil palm and 4% of land under rubber may be flooded and abandoned as a result of sea level rise.

2. Forestry

The following climate factors play an important role in determining future forest conditions (IPCC 2007):

• Air temperature

• Precipitation amount and seasonal distribution

• Atmospheric CO2 concentrations

• Frequency and severity of wildfire events

• Climatic variability and the frequency and severity of extreme events

• Indirect effects on pollution levels such as tropospheric ozone

Impacts:

• Changes in forest health and productivity

• Changes in the geographic range of certain tree species

• Alter timber production, outdoor recreational activities, water quality, wildlife and rates of carbon storage

The importance of forest:

• Forests form an essential component of the global carbon cycle, acting as a reservoir for storing carbon.

• Forest ecosystem is an integral part of the biological system, constantly reacting to variations in climate.

3. Ecosystems and Biodiversity

An ecosystem is an interdependent, functioning system of plants, animals and microorganisms.

The biodiversity of organisms are affected regarding their population, distribution, level of the ecosystem, and even the individuals’ morphology and function.

Because of the increase in temperature, organisms have already adapted by expanding their ranges in latitudes so that many species population have declined. Many animals have exhibited changes in the timings of their physiological functions.

Regarding ecosystems, studies revealed that climate change has brought the expansion of many desert ecosystems and thus have effects on the function and services that the ecosystem can provide.

4. Land and Recreational Areas

National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and other protected areas harbour unique environments and wildlife not found elsewhere.

Many parks and refuges are designated to protect rare natural features or particular species of plants and animals.

Impacts:

• Create new stresses on natural communities

• In the absence of adaptation, lead to the loss of valued resources

• Shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns could lead to shifts in a variety of outdoor tourism and recreation opportunities, such as fishing and hunting.

• Coastal regions face the possibility of land loss due to sea-level rise.

• Replenishing beach sands may become a more extensive and costlier effort

• The tourism industry related to snorkelling and scuba diving may be negatively affected by changes in coral reefs.

5. Water Resources and Water Availability

Change in Water Quantity

a. Water excess (extreme rainfall, flows)

• Increase in severity of floods

• Increase in soil erosion

Kota Tinggi in Malaysia was severely flooded between December 2006 and January 2007.

Masjid Jamek in Kuala Lumpur had the appearance of an island during the downpour on September 2020.

b. Water shortage (drought)

• Reduced inflows to reservoirs

• Reduced stream-flows

• Reduced recharge of groundwater

Farmers in a parched padi field in Perlis, Malaysia.

Change in Water Quality

Increase in pollution: litters, nutrients and sediments

Factories pump plenty of toxic effluents into some of Malaysia's rivers.

An illegal factory that caused widespread water pollution operates right on the bank of Sungai Semenyih in Selangor.

Quality of Water Resources in Malaysia

6. Coastal Zones and Sea Level Rise

The IPCC estimates that the global average sea level will rise between 0.6 and 2 feet (0.18 to 0.59 meters) in the next century (IPCC 2007).

Key concerned:

• Sea level rise

• Land loss

• Changes in maritime storms

• Flooding (sea level rise and water resources)

Rising sea level through…

• Expanding ocean water

• Melting mountain glaciers and small ice caps

• Causing portions of Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets to melt

The impact of rising sea level:

• Increases the salinity of surface water and ground water through salt water intrusion.

• If sea level rise pushes salty water upstream, the existing water intakes might draw on salty water during dry periods.

• Salinity increases in estuaries can harm aquatic plants and animals that do not tolerate high salinity.

• Inundate wetlands and other low-lying lands, erode beaches, intensify flooding, and increase the salinity of rivers, bays, and groundwater tables.

The impact on coastal resources in Malaysia:

• Tidal inundation (about 1200 km2 in Peninsular Malaysia alone will be submerged, Mangroves will be lost if sea level rises at a rate of 0.9 cm/year)

• Shoreline retreat

• Increased wave action which can affect the structural integrity of coastal facilities and installations such as power plants

• Saline intrusion, which can pose a potential threat of water contamination at water abstraction points.

7. Erosion and Sedimentation

Average annual soil expressed in tones per km2 per year for Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak is 355, 518 and 1,524, respectively.

Causes:

• The differences in land use practices

Impacts:

• Higher risk of slope failures of riverbanks and hills

• Faster rate of sedimentation of reservoirs and channels

• More extensive loss of soil nutrients

8. Health

Impacts:

• Deaths due to heat stress or respiratory diseases due to air pollution,

• Increased food and water-borne diseases (such as malaria and dengue fever, as changes in temperature will increase the availability of suitable breeding habitats for the vectors), resulting from changes in rainfall pattern.

Food and water-borne diseases are due to indirect health effects of a changing climate including:

• Diarrhoea caused by a variety of organisms (such as salmonellae)

• Other viral diseases (such as hepatitis A)

• Protozoan diseases (such as amoebic dysentery)

9. Electricity Production and Consumption

Impacts:

• Infrastructure for energy production

• Transmission and distribution

• Increasing Operational and maintenance costs of electricity producers

• Reduced plant efficiency and power output

• Increased use of air-conditioning due to the increasing consumption of electricity

• Oil and gas industries and associated coastal facilities are affected