Global Development Initiative paves the way to carbon neutrality

SEVERAL countries have been hit by deadly floods, with the latest being the flood in Libya brought by Storm Daniel, which has claimed 2,000 lives in the city of Derna alone as of Sept 12.

While climate change may not be the cause of storms, they are forming in an atmosphere that is becoming warmer and wetter as more greenhouse gases accumulate.

As experts have warned, extreme rainfall will be a more common occurrence going forward, and additional warming will only make this situation worse.

Such frequent catastrophes emphasise the importance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

As China is the world’s most populated country as well as the top carbon emitter, accounting for one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions, all eyes are on it to see how it can pull off the massive feat of achieving carbon peak before 2030 and eventually carbon neutrality before 2060.

With this pledge in mind, cooperation on climate change and green development is one of the eight priority areas in the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept 21.

Commendable progress has been observed in this area.

For instance, 46 South-South cooperation documents on climate change were signed with 39 developing countries, 52 training programmes on climate change capacity-building were held for approximately 2,300 officials from more than 120 developing countries, and numerous High-Level Dialogue sessions were held to exchange ideas to promote green transition of production and lifestyle.

One of the most important outcomes of the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development is the promotion of global green development via an innovation-driven approach, which led to the release of the concept note on the Global Clean Energy Cooperation Partnership in September last year.

The Partnership is committed to: expanding investment in clean energy to drive economic recovery and growth; deepening cooperation in clean energy to improve access to energy worldwide; promoting the integration of clean energy industry to ensure energy security and sustainability; leading the restructuring of the energy mix to meet the climate challenge; and tapping the potential of energy technology innovation to drive systemic transformation in energy.

China has made remarkable progress in the adoption of clean energy over the past decade, reflecting the commitment of the world’s second largest economy to transitioning to a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly energy system.

The country is now a global leader in renewable energy capacity. As of April, the combined installed capacity of wind and solar energy reached 820 gigawatts (GW), amounting to 31% of the country’s total installed power generation capacity.

Meanwhile, China has also been a pioneer in developing hydropower, which now accounts for 17% of its total installed power generation capacity.

Closer to the consumer, the country is also the world’s largest market for electric vehicles (EV), with companies like Build Your Dream (BYD), NIO and Xiaomi making significant strides in the EV industry.

On the local front, Malaysia's government has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and reducing carbon dioxide intensity against gross domestic product (GDP) by 45% by 2030.

The latest carbon dioxide emission intensity data available at the World Bank database shows that in 2020, the carbon emission intensity was 0.3kg per unit of GDP, down 25% from 0.4kg reported in 2005.

This indicates that Malaysia still needs to step up its efforts in reducing the intensity of its greenhouse gas emissions to meet the 45% target in seven years.

In the launch of the first National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) on July 27, six energy transition levers were outlined, namely energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydrogen, bioenergy, green mobility and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).

Under the renewable energy section which constitutes the highest number of projects, it can be observed that most of the initiatives are centred on solar power, with the largest being the establishment of the pilot renewable energy zone by UEM Group Berhad and ITRAMAS Corporation, which is expected to generate one gigawatt of energy.

According to Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli, the implementation of NETR Phase 1 will open up investment opportunities valued between RM435bil and RM1.85 trillion by 2050, a big opportunity for Malaysia to attract both foreign and domestic direct investments.

Given China’s rather matured renewable energy technologies and development, Malaysia could potentially attract investment from China which would subsequently lead to knowledge transfer in this area.

In short, Malaysia has the opportunity to glean valuable insights from China's strides in renewable energy development as it pursues its own journey toward achieving carbon neutrality.

China's robust investments, innovative technologies, and ambitious targets offer a roadmap worth exploring for Malaysia's sustainable energy transition.

Dr Liew Ping Xin is an Assistant Professor at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

The SEARCH Scholar Series is a social responsibility programme jointly organised by the South-East Asia Research Centre for Humanities (SEARCH) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), in conjunction with the 10-year anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.