31 October, Johor Bahru: The 2nd International Symposium-cum-Workshop on “Low-Carbon Asia Research Project” is held from 31 October – 1 November 2011 in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru.
The event is jointly organized by UTM, Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and the Japanese counterparts consisting of Kyoto University, the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and Japan International Cooperation Agency-Japan Science Technology Fund (JICA-JST).
The event is sponsored by the Low Carbon Society Regional-net (LCS-RNet) and JICA-JST under the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development Programme (SATREPS).
A total of 200 participants comprising top officers and speakers from government relevant agencies in Malaysia and Asian countries, academics and research students from Japan and UTM, joined the one-day symposium on the 31 October 2011 in UTM.
The event was officiated by Mr. Tsutomu Nagae, The Chief Representative from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and witnessed by Prof. Dato’ Dr. Marzuki Khalid, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of UTM (Research & Innovation), Tuan Hj. Ismail Ibrahim, The Chief Executive of IRDA, and Dr. Gary W. Theseira from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Malaysia.
The project champions for the Low-Carbon Asia Research Project are Prof. Yuzuru Matsuoka from Kyoto University and Prof Ho Chin Siong from UTM.
In tandem with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) establishment of a new framework and assistance to developing countries, Asian countries including Malaysia as a rapidly growing nation is at the stage of formulating their plans towards low-carbon development.
It is important for developing countries such as Malaysia to provide back-up plan to the framework through their own research. Overall, the policies for low-carbon development should be promoted voluntarily by researchers in each country, and research results should be continuously reflected in actual policy formulation and implementation.
This symposium-cum-workshop and launching of LCS in Iskandar Malaysia are among the LCS-RNet’s programmes that can promote policy dialogues between policy-makers and researchers, as well as networking among researchers.
This is for capacity-building so as to promote the creation of policies relevant to low-carbon in Asia through scientific approaches. Ultimately, the Asian community as part of the global community can use regional and/or global climate policy to promote the creation of low carbon society in terms of land use, economic, social, cultural and environmental planning and management policies in Asia.
Such developments are to be supported by research, operating through research networks autonomously in Asia towards establishing LCSR-Asia League.
This Second Low Carbon Asia Research Project Symposium-cum-Workshop also marks the official beginning of this major joint research project spearheaded by Japan and Malaysia.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as one of the research universities (RUs) in Malaysia will be leading Malaysian researchers to work with a team of top Japanese environmental engineers and researchers from Kyoto University, the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and Okayama University.
This project will be closely coordinated with IRDA and the local authorities within Iskandar Malaysia as the main implementing agencies as well as other government policy-makers such as the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE).
This project is supported by JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency), and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). It is also listed as one of the major activities in the Japan-Malaysia Joint Leaders’ Statement on “Enhanced Partnership for a New Frontier”, unveiled on April 19, 2010, by Prime Ministers of both countries. This project was officially launched by the Chief Minister of the State of Johor on 4 July 2011.
This is one of the major international research grants offered by the Japanese Government to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for the purpose of study on climate change. With strong collaboration with the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and Federal Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD), the outcome of the research will provide direct input to the implementation of IRDA’s Comprehensive Development Plan and relevant blueprints.
Apart from developing low carbon society scenarios and model for the fast growing region of Iskandar Malaysia, UTM will also function as a hub for capacity-building for researchers in low carbon studies in the Asian region.
Among the aims of the symposium and workshop on LCS are to initiate the development of a research network in Asia on LCS; conduct outreach and promote Asia LCS-RNet activities; building capacity with Asian governmental agencies; and establish dialogues between policy-makers and researchers.
In order for Malaysia to fulfill its 40% voluntary reduction in carbon intensity by 2020, it needs to introduce and implement a low carbon society to reduce the amount of carbon-dioxide emissions at a national level and also to design or create a road map towards a low carbon society at either the regional or city level.
The pilot project for the case study is the Iskandar Malaysia region, which will showcase the best practice for this region. It will involve the collection, compilation and analysis of technical information to generate scenarios for year 2005 as the base year, which will then be used to generate the countermeasure scenarios for a low carbon society for Iskandar Malaysia for 2025.
The overall aim of this research project will benefit not only the specific region (Iskandar Malaysia) but the whole nation (Peninsula Malaysia) and also the Asian Region. This research will be a hands-on project where researchers and government officers or administrators of the developing countries get to work together in implementing the research outputs within the city or region involved. This will enable the organization of a network for the Asian Low Carbon Society.
Specifically, the quantitative indicators for this study are :
a) To determine the total energy consumption and CO2 emission based on the existing Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) of IskandarMalaysia;
b) To compute a summary of quantitative alternative scenarios on the establishment of a sustainable low-carbon society;
c) To identify potential mitigation measures and policies in the areas of building, transportation, and solid waste management and
d) To promote awareness among local authorities, the State Government, stakeholders and the community in general to realise a robust growth and a low carbon society in Iskandar Malaysia.