After much more anticipated, it is now DAY 3 in Conference of Youth (COY), Tokyo. The day starts with an important sharing session on Day 2 activities. I have shared my reflection on the Planetary Health Flim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2tctLlNycI Mamtaz’s Story” – The fight for climate justice in the Bay of Bengal. Click on the link to watch the video. After watching the video, you may start thinking how am I blessed with what I have today and owning a sense of appreciation. Most of the people never thought about how others are suffering while we are constantly exploring our resources. Nowadays, generation do not even know or care about how the water, food and basic necessity come from. The answer might be water come from the tap, food come from supermarket and electricity come from turning on the switch. From this video, each of every individual can do our parts to save those countries suffering from climate change. It can always be a simple action – Monday Veggie Day, Drive Less and Walk, Save every drop of water, etc. After that, we slowly spread it to friends, family and local community. When there is a change in local community, it will be much more effective to urge government moving toward climate actions.
We continued the Youth of East Asia Action Agenda (YEAAA). It was the final round discussion to adopt the YEAAA Declaration. We managed to reach a consensus between participants on the topics discussed in the earlier YEAAA Session. There is also plan to submit the declaration to ASEAN youth, ASEAN and translate to different languages to have a better understanding. Since COY11 in Japan is the fastest team to come out with a declaration, the final text of declaration is not announced because other local COY are still working on the manifesto. However, the final manifesto will be compiled by COY team in Paris and submit to COP21.
The most exciting moment for COY 11, Tokyo is finally here. EARTH PARADE 2015 in TOKYO! This is the kind of parade which we usually saw it in the news, newspaper and TV especially in developed countries. Now, I have a chance to experience it myself. I am simply amazed by the number of crowds who joined the parade because this is the first year an Earth Parade is happening in Tokyo. http://climate-action-now.jp/parade2015/ . The event started with several stage performances at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Two representatives from COY 11 have given a speech to the audience. It is an honour that youth is given an opportunity to voice up their concern about climate change in public. After listened to the theme song of “Earth-Parade 2015 in Tokyo, we started the march in TOKYO areas. I hold the bunting of Power Shift Malaysia during the march. This comes along with EARTH PARADE CHANT as below:
I say SOLAR you say POWER
I say WIND you say POWER
I say PEOPLE you say POWER
Save the Planet, Protect the Climate!
Climate Action Now!
No more coal No more oil,
Keep your carbon in the soil.
I say climate…you say justice!
I say No…you say COAL / Nuclear
Many Japanese are standing at the side lane and looking at US. We managed to catch the attention of people and most importantly raise awareness. I am motivated, inspired and looking for continuity of such events in future. May be we can have an EARTH PARADE in Malaysia! Lastly, I hope to see more movement from local communities and pushing pressure for world leaders to act against climate change. Think about your children, grandchildren, learnt from history and CHANGE for a better tomorrow.
The 21st session of Conference of Parties (COP21) is one of the most unique COPs ever held in the history of UNFCCC. Not only due to the urgency of achieving universal agreement on Climate but also of its uncommon opening plenary that is held on SUNDAY!
The opening plenary was graced by the presence of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also known for his role as the President of COP21, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of UNFCCC, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal President COP 20 and 1,300 attendees around the globe.
Before the opening ceremony of the plenary, a minute of silence was held for Paris in response to the recent barbaric attack at Paris. It is then President COP20 highlighted the importance of finding solution in an articulated manner.
“To be effective we need clear solution. We need to be solution oriented. We also need full trust. This means – inclusiveness, transparency and efficiency of the whole process. Decision has to be solidified by the first week of COP21.” – President of COP20, Manuel
In support of the statement given by President COP20, 150 heads of state and ministers gave their opening speech at COP on 30th November 2015. The political language expressed are required to be translated into concrete mechanisms, that to be adopted and transformed into a universal agreement at the end of Paris COP21.
President of COP21, Mr. Laurent Fabias
“We have to to decide how to live on this planet together where, everyone has the access to sustainable development. My priority is to facilitate the attainment of the ambitious agreement among all countries” says, President of COP21, Fabias.
The work of ADP is to be completed by Friday, 4th Dec 2015, and have the negotiation text to be finalized by the mid of second week. If, we want to achieve a universal agreement by 11th December 2015.
Amalen here from #MYD, I’m in Paris now for COP21 and the following is my account for today, the 29th of November 2015,one day before the official launch of COP21. If you want live updates from me do follow me on twitter @amalen_fs
Feeling excited to be in the COP21 area!
Its 3.30pm and its badge collection time for us. Arriving at Le Bourget, closest train station to COP21 venue, was pretty standard but once we made our way to the shuttle centre it was intense. So many people waiting for the shuttle busses to the convention centre. I’m sitting in the bus and I’m hearing all sorts of language around, French English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and others I didn’t recognise. Everyone’s excited. And it’s just giving me a whole lot of energy. Our story begins NOW. And I can’t wait to see how things will unfold.
Collect badges – done
Familiarise self with areas within cop21 – done
How I feel right now – overwhelmed. Simply overwhelmed
This place is huge. It’s intense. There is just so much going on and this is a day before cop21 officially starts. There are a total of 6 halls and two plenary halls. And these places are immense. Each Hall has its designated allocations of spaces such as parties meeting rooms, exhibition areas, eating areas, media centre, etc.
Seeing everything and trying to take it in is perplexing me right now. I’m trying to get my bearings and head on proper but still I feel very ‘jakun’. But we’ll there’s 14 days left. Let’s hope things get better.
It’s already 5.05pm and the Opening plenary for the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is yet to begin. The hall is already crowded with tons of people and more are flooding in. Later on we find out that they had to shut the door after the plenary began and a number of negotiators were stuck outside which created some drama of its own.
Map of COP21 venue
5.08pm and the first plenary for ADP has begun!
The ADP opening plenary begins!
It begins with a moment of silence to honour those that have lost their lives in the Paris attacks and for those that have contributed to the continuing COP process that are not with us anymore.
The outgoing President of Cop from last year (COP20, Lima) gave an opening statement to talk about the cop process to thank those involved and to give motivations for the process ahead.
This was followed by the incoming President of Cop who gave a speech in French about the things that he has in mind for the next 2 weeks as well as encouraging ambitiousness. He then went on to talk about the text and his optimism for it as well as the challenges that he expects. He mainly stressed on transparency.
A second co-president of the ADP followed up about the ADP text and what has been done and what needs to be done for this process. He continued to inform the hall about working group meeting times as well as deadlines and reasoning’s behind them. Something I found interesting was that he addressed observers and where they may be so they can observe the sessions going on properly. And a lot of these meetings will be publicly displayed as well.
After giving all his clarifications, he went on to commence that work would begin today itself and this was not met with any objections.
The other co-president then followed with a lot of fluff about keeping promises and meeting deadlines and the importance of them.
The Tuvalu Delegation brought up an important point of transparency, stating that they had a lack of information about the previous ADP sessions that went on in the past week. The Co-president of the ADP then assured him of the transparency process through the pledges they’ve taken before to ensure this. Ending the plenary, he made an interesting statement about how ‘If we save Tuvalu we save the world.’ Something rather interesting to say, and I wonder why. Something to read later I guess.
That’s all for now. Till next time.
Amalen
Malaysian Youth Delegation
Time: 17:12
Author: Loh Rachel, 18 (Selangor, Malaysia)
Current location: Yoyogi Olympics Memorial Youth Center (Tokyo, Japan)
I spent the last night of COY11 Tokyo editing the Youth of East Asia Action Agenda Declaration with Kotoe (one of the main Organisers of the event). The participants worked tirelessly to ensure that the declaration is truly representative of the East Asian youths. We addressed issues related to climate change such as: rising sea levels, poverty, haze, etc. by coming up with creative and innovative youth-led initiatives.
COY 11 Tokyo!
One of the many highlights of the day was the Earth Parade (a.k.a Global Climate March). It was my first time participating in a demonstration and it was exhilarating! We walked approximately 1.5km holding up our signs and chanting about the importance of protecting our Earth. Sze Ming, another representative from Malaysia, has a short clip of the parade on her Instagram account (@szemingg). Additionally, you can check out Power Shift Malaysia’s FB page for more awesome pictures of the Earth Parade.
Fun fact: the Earth Parade is known as the Global Climate March in other countries. Pictures of the march is now all over social media, with posts originating from Paris to Penang!
Lastly, I am extremely grateful to AirAsia for sponsoring our (Malaysian Youth Delegation) flights to Tokyo so that we could attend COY11. I had the opportunity to connect on a more personal level with youth leaders from countries such as Korea and France. And more importantly, contribute to the Youth of East Asia Action Agenda Declaration, which will be published soon on: Tokyo.coy11.org . So, domo arigatou once again, AirAsia!
Hello readers, believe or not COP21 will be happened in less than 24 hours ! Starting from tomorrow, more than 100 world leaders including Malaysia will negotiate on climate change’s issue. You can read our article on Road to COP21 Paris Background for more information on COP21. Wonder what Malaysia is doing to tackle climate change’s issue so far? Lets take a look Malaysia’s position on climate change.
one more day
Malaysian Position on Climate Change
Climate scientists agree that climate change is occurring and greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the main reasons. Negative impacts and threats to ecological system, human health, Earth’s physical and economic are likely to be real if there is no mitigating actions are taken. Hence, during COP15, Malaysia has agreed to cut 40% in emissions intensity by the year 2020 compared to the 2005 levels. Malaysia has set up many emission reduction initiatives to meet the goal. Among Malaysia initiative is on renewable energy (RE).
Renewable energy is an energy obtained from natural resource such as biomass, hydro, wind, solar and geothermal that can be replenished. Renewable energy can be used as a replacement of fossil fuel in energy generation and using renewable energy instead of fossil fuel can reduce greenhouse gas emission.
Thus, Malaysia has launched the National Renewable Energy Policy 2010 to improve renewable energy’s development in Malaysia. The aim of National RE Policy 2010 is to enhance the utilization of indigenous renewable energy resources to contribute towards national electricity supply security and sustainable socio-economic development. This policy consists of five objectives that are:-
(1) To increase RE contribution in the national power generation mix.
(2) To facilitate the growth of the RE industry.
(3) To ensure reasonable RE generation costs.
(4) To conserve the environment for future generation.
(5) To enhance awareness on the role and importance of RE.
In order to ensure the objectives of National RE Policy 2010 is achieved, five strategic thrusts have been identified as per below:-
Renewable Energy Act has been launched on 2011 to support Thrust 1. The Act is to provide establishment and implementation of a special tariff system (Feed in tariff system) to catalyze the generation of renewable energy and to provide for related matters. The act consists of a feed in tariff system, connection, purchase and distribution of renewable energy, feed in tariff, renewable energy fund, information gathering powers, enforcement, general, savings and transitional.
In the same year, SEDA Act 2011 also launched. The act is aimed to provide for the establishment of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (SEDA Malaysia) and to provide for its functions and powers and for related matters.
Thrust 2 : Provide conducive-environment for RE businesses
The conducive environment would include the provision of :-
Creation of an evaluation process for lending to RE power producers.
The standard evaluation process will be set up by trained renewable energy financing team. Mandating the evaluation process can be undertaken by Bank Negara Malaysia. The evaluation is to provide added security to the financial institutions in lending to renewable energy power generation projects. As a stand-by provision, the government offer financial assistance, estimated RM500 million to renewable energy power generation firms that are unable to secure any funding.
Continuation of existing fiscal incentives
Existing fiscal incentives will be continued until 2019. Meanwhile, an evaluation of the incentives’s relevance and usefulness to firms will be undertaken over 4 years from renewable energy law enforcement. The evaluation is to determine if any revisions on the fiscal incentives are required or not.
Special fiscal reliefs to use locally created/developed R&D
Special fiscal reliefs will be given to firms that adopt and use locally created or developed R&D for renewable energy. The special fiscal reliefs are:
(a) Group tax relief – so losses in one subsidiary can be used to offset the profits in another; and
(b) Double deduction of the costs of the local innovation or R&D in RE technology used
4. Local content incentives
Incentives will be given to renewable energy manufacturer that use local material in their finished products and component. The incentives would be double deduction on local material for domestic manufacturer and for foreign manufacturer that use more than 50% local content, the incentive would be 2 years tax holiday extended or the grant of 2 years tax holiday.
Create an RE Centre for SMEs
The RE Centre focus on providing information about renewable energy project to SMEs and assisting SMEs to participate in incentive programs.
Involve GLCs and specifying their RE contribution by using their existing renewable energy resource for renewable energy power generation or demonstrating their renewable energy projects and technologies.
Involve existing MNCs like IKEA, Western Digital, INTEL and others to engage in renewable energy activities and to influence local suppliers to do likewise.
Thrust 3 : Intensify human capital development
There are three actions under Thrust 3 which are:-
1) Collaboration amongst ministries to design certifying renewable energy technology courses at a local institute of higher learning and also training centers.
2) Increase the development of training institutes that meet international renewable energy training standard and also development of centers of excellence (CoE) at universities.
3) Provide technical training subsidy and fiscal relief for higher education. The subsidy and fiscal relief valid for renewable energy course only.
Thrust 4 : Enhance RE research and development
The focus of renewable energy research and development is on innovation as innovation enhances the diffusion of renewable energy technology by making the technology cheaper and easier to use. Several research that have been done are wind mapping, geothermal study and mini hydro map.
Thrust 5 : Design and implement an RE advocacy program
The advocacy programs under Thrust 5 are an awareness program and the commissioning of independent evaluations published locally or engaging third party public sector bodies to organize workshops, discussion forums, seminars or case studies or even public hearings, briefings or consultations. The programs consist of two phases. Phase one is to provide information and phase two is to encourage participation from the target audience. Each phase is tailored to specific target audience with specific messages. Target audience is divided into eight categories that are public, schools, banks, GLCs/MNCs/Public listed companies and large enterprises, SMEs, regulatory bodies, the third sectors and government agencies.
Overall, Malaysia is already aware on climate change issue and hence, Malaysia has implemented a variety of programs to cut down emission as in the renewable energy sector. Other than emission reduction in the renewable energy sector, Malaysia also focuses on sustainable waste management, eco-tourism, eco-city, energy efficiency and others. However, Malaysia still need a support in technology and financial to further improve on climate change related issues.
Reference : Malaysia National Renewable Energy Policy
