Climate mitigation centre to mobilise efforts

Raja Zarith Sofiah (centre) speaking to Hasni (second from left) and other guests at Istana Bukit Serene in Johor Baru, during the group’s courtesy visit.

THE establishment of a Johor Climate Mitigation Centre (JCMC) has been put forward to tackle climate issues.

Johor Economic, Tourism and Cultural Office (Jetco) chairman Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad suggested this during an audience with Permaisuri Johor Raja Zarith Sofiah Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah.

The audience between the former Johor mentri besar and Raja Zarith Sofiah took place at Istana Bukit Serene in Johor Baru.

Also present were Universiti Teknologi Malaysia vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Research Institute for Environmental Sustainability senior director Prof Dr Azmi Aris and Environmental Management and Water Resources Institute director Prof Dr Zainura Zainon Noor.

Hasni, who is also Benut assemblyman, said there was an urgent need for Johor to take proactive measures to tackle climate change.

“The symbiotic relationship with Singapore provides bright opportunities for setting up JCMC, which will act as an institution that manages collaboration between experts and the private sector to become a centre of knowledge.

“With Raja Permaisuri, together with UTM, who went to a climate change conference at Oxford in the United Kingdom, I feel this is a good opportunity to mobilise efforts to deal with this issue in Johor,” he added.

Hasni had previously mentioned there was a need to further strengthen collaboration with Singapore to address climate change issues.

“As a state with such a special relationship with Singapore, we need to take extra effort to have more collaborations with the island republic, especially on climate change and environmental issues.

“We need to have more memoranda of understanding with Singapore with regards to these issues and work together on addressing them,” he said.

Hasni said Johor could also produce a special framework to deal with climate change and environmental issues.

“We have public and private universities as well as companies that can contribute to the establishment of a centre of excellence that can discuss these issues.

“We also have the carbon-neutral masterplan at the national level that can be used as a guide for us to come up with our own framework.

“We can look at Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 too as another reference,” he noted.

Hasni added that he was in the midst of setting up an appointment with Singapore’s sustainability and environment minister Grace Fu to discuss further collaboration.