RimbaWatch estimates that the KL-Singapore air route and its flights will emit 229tCO2e in 2024, furthering the point in enhancing rail connectivity as a viable alternative along this corridor.
THE proposed high speed railway (HSR) between Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Singapore aims to streamline travel between the two capitals while curbing costs and emissions.
Originally conceptualised in 2013 and formalised through a binding agreement between Malaysia and Singapore in 2016, the project was discontinued in 2020, leading to a compensation payout of over US$76.46mil to Singapore.
However, following the 2022 Malaysian General Elections, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim resurrected discussions on the HSR, signalling renewed interest in the project. Presently, the initiative is open to concept proposals from domestic and international private entities, with the Malaysian government emphasising cost efficiency in light of previous setbacks.
KL-SIN air route is a carbon bomb
The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore air route is ranked as the world’s busiest, handling 4.9 million passengers in 2023. Based on RimbaWatch’s own estimations, these flights will generate 229tCO2e emissions in 2024, equivalent to the entire national emissions of countries like Tonga and São Tomé and Príncipe combined.
Using the estimations above, the average emissions per passenger for a KL-Singapore return flight is 93kgCO2e, or 47kgCO2e for a one-way flight, reflecting the significant impact of air travel on carbon emissions and its consequent contribution to climate change.
Aviation accounts for 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, and is only rising with increased demand for air travel. It amounted to 800 MtCO2 in 2022, which is greater than the total annual emissions of Germany, Canada and Saudi Arabia.
However, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) framework, international aviation emissions are excluded from national-level emissions disclosures.
This omission undermines the urgency to reduce aviation emissions, as failure to disclose essentially leads to “missing emissions” that no one takes accountability for, nor is incentivised to reduce.
The decarbonisation of air travel is a long way away
Despite efforts to reduce emissions, the aviation sector faces challenges in decarbonisation, primarily due to limitations with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) acknowledge the absence of practical alternatives to kerosene-based fuels for commercial jet aircraft in the foreseeable future.
The IEA reported that globally, the sector is not on track to decarbonise aviation. The planned production capacity for SAF remains only a fraction of total jet fuel demand by 2027. This limitation underscores the reality that transitioning away from conventional jet fuel is not a near-term solution comparable to the swift adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
Moreover, relying solely on carbon offsets to mitigate aviation emissions is insufficient, as they do not address the fundamental issue of reducing emissions at the source.
Improved rail links are the best solution
Amidst the challenges in aviation decarbonisation, enhancing rail connectivity emerges as a viable alternative along the KL-Singapore corridor. Leveraging the existing KTM line, capable of reaching speeds up to 160 km/h, could significantly reduce travel time to two hours, making it competitive against air travel, while avoiding the cost of constructing the HSR.If each first-generation KTM train operates on the route, around 38 direct trains per day or 19 return trips would be needed to match air travel demand of 4 million annual air passengers.
Even a 50% reduction in air travel would lead to substantial emissions savings equivalent to 14.17 trillion car trips between KL and Singapore.
The IPCC projects that, with our existing climate policies, we will increase global warming by 3.2°C by 2100.
We are already on track to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2035, driven primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels.
Aviation remains one of the industries that, unlike road or rail transportation, involves fuels that are difficult to decarbonise.
This means an urgent need to reduce air travel significantly and switch to alternative forms of travel to decrease emissions in this sector.
There needs to be a phase-out of short-distance air travel. It is counterintuitive that such a short route does not have other, low-emitting, transport alternatives.
This contrasts legislation in countries like France, which bans short-haul flights for distances that can be covered in two and a half hours by train.
The ban was introduced on the grounds of recognising the impact of this form of travel on “serious environmental problems”, demonstrating ways in which legislation can limit environmentally-harmful travel options.
RimbaWatch is a regional, independent watchdog conducting research and analysis on climate-related issues. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
