Visit of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Government of Malaysia to the NIES Booth at COP18/CMP8
On December 6, 2012, a five member delegation, including the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Sri Douglas Uggah EMBAS and other high ranking officials in the Ministry visited the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) booth at COP18/CMP8. The Minister commented that he was intimately acquainted with the cooperative research activities towards the realization of Low Carbon Society in the Iskander Malaysia being undertaken between Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and NIES for the JICA/JST and SATREPS research project “Development of Low Carbon Society Scenarios for Asian Regions”, being implemented in Iskander, Malaysia.
NIES Research Associate Yumiko ASAYAMA introduced as an example of an initiative on regional and national levels how, in order to achieve the two degree target by 2050, co-benefits could be achieved while reducing CO2 in each country of Asia, as well as Asian Low Carbon Society (LCS) scenario research demonstrating comparisons with BAU scenarios. She also introduced the distinctive features of drafting a roadmap in line with the vision towards the realization of Asian LCS, and indicating what actions should be taken and by when for each countries governments, private sector, citizens and international bodies to work towards the creation of an ideal society. The Minister gave his focused attention to the introductory booklet for Asian LCS and the Thai LCS scenario report.
The Minister also visited the UTM booth, counterparts for the research project “Development of Low Carbon Society scenarios for Asian regions” and was given an overview of the project, and details of the LCS blueprint towards 2025 for Iskander, Malaysia by project coordinators CHAU Loon Wai and Koichi OKABE. UTM was the sole Malaysian group to participate in COP18, and the Minister emphasized this point during his appraisals. He also commented that it was wonderful to see tangible results being made public on the occasion of COP18. The Minister was warmly received throughout his visit and he subsequently expressed his wish that support for the relationship with his ministry would be maintained.
Low Carbon Society Blueprint for Iskander Malaysia 2025, Summary for Policymakers (SPM), presented by Iskander Regional Development Authority, UTM and NIES at COP18 was picked up by many media outlets after its presentation as outcomes of our institute. It is expected that LCS scenarios for every region of Malaysia will be prepared in future, making use of our knowledge of LCS drafting in Iskander, Malaysia.
This was a valuable opportunity for NIES to directly explain the global scale, regional, national, and local authority levels on in which it is engaged against global warming in an integrated manner to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.
Authors: Makiko SUDA, Yumiko ASAYAMA, Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research, Koichi OKABE, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia