Open Letter to YB Xavier (NRE Minister), YB Yeo (Climate Change Minister)& Anthony Loke (Transport Minister): Suggestion to include carbon footprint to billing& incentivize carbon reduction.

In light with Malaysia SDG(Sustainable Development Goals) commitment, I wish to recommend a more inclusive and participative approach to bring down carbon emission. 

recommendations are as enumerated belows;

1. Print historical record of carbon emission of electricity on electric bill. Entire year or six month record of carbon footprint&
electrical consumption print on the electric bill against national average. This encourage competition to lower down carbon emission. Carbon footprint may not as details as to individual premises but from power generator to transformer then calculate based on consumption.

The reason being is every district electrical carbon footprint is different based on the power generator fuel composition and distance of distribution (distribution loss) as well as margin reserve of the particular area.

It would be wise to request all local government to gather the GFA of property in order to calculate the BEI (Building Energy Index). A mobile apps could be created so that user can be more accurately enter data on operation hours otherwise it shall be calculated based on general operation hours of each category.

It will enable government to gather data on the peak load thus effectively formulate remedy for reserve margin. Once detected peak load, government can narrow down to find which electrical appliances is the culprit? which period consume the most? can the operation shifted without affecting business function? 

However, I woulnd't suggest carbon emission to affect electrical tariff but instead government should encourage the higher carbon emission area to reduce their dependency of grid-tied electrical consumption by first reduce power consumption and then consider go for renewable energy.

2. Incentivize public transport user based on carbon emission.

An apps and website should be created in addition to the touch n' go display screen to record user's travel carbon emission and credit. the calculation of carbon footprint from public transport mileage against average private vehicle should be used as yardstick for the incentive& prize program.

The reason? different public transport emit different level of carbon emission. Although the calculation of the same type should be average out to CO2e/km. e.g. RapidKL have old and new bus emitting different level of CO2 but calculation take the average that is total petrol consumption of the bus company per total bus km run. of course RapidKL may do collect data on individual bus and continuously improve to mitigate the emission. MRT and LRT also emit differently.

However, I would suggest the incentive program should peg to the mileage on public transport disregard which type because the very purpose of transport is getting from A to B the most efficient way. The carbon emission reduction shall be rewarded secondary to the the mileage.

For example, The minimum eligible for reward is 25km per week with maximum 10km from the month carry forward if did not achieve the eligible, Mr. Tay taken average 30km bus+MRT per week for the month of August thus rewarded 3km worth of bus and 3km worth of MRT journey on the following month.

The September he only took 8km average per week total 42hours during the month thus no reward but he may carry 10km to the following month. hence, although he took the average 8km per week on October he still eligible for the reward because of the carry forward from the previous month.

Credit eligible candidate also automatically enrol into monthly million ringgit program. I would suggest one million ringgit as prize in order to attract ridership. This also need to evaluate based on train capacity and ridership. RapidKL is facing millions of losses thus a million ringgit prize will drastically pull up riderships and allow trains and bus to increase capacity and profit. train compartment can be added to full capacity while buses can be double decker or as trailer.

Prize lottery may even be a family entertainment TV program with others green activity such as school recycling to showcase on TV. This will encourage participations and draw TV viewership. commercial and private sponsorship will boost both local media business and awareness in sustainable development.

Each public transport company should also compete to bring down the carbon emission on top of a maximum CO2e emission set. 

 3. Transport attributed to 40% of total carbon emission on earth. EV (Electric Vehicle) may be a worst polluter than ICE（Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle depending on th source of fuel and battery used. therefore, I would like to suggest major city to install solar& mini-hydro at potential water tributaries such as Klang river to generate Renewable Energy for the EV and street lighting.

Once SMART GRID is up the hybrid of system may take advantage of it to cut down carbon emission effectively. Ideally, to increase the ownership of EV Malaysia need to get the facilities ready. Charging station is main challenge since charging station is rare seen in rural area where people need to travel more than 300km will be left stranded in the middle if without charging station in between the journey. 

Promotion of EV and sharing program such as the COSMO incurred significant loss to the government. Steep prices and lack of station become the main weakness for the EV. People in Malaysia is still apathy about environment and economically weak to afford EV when what they want is rent a transport to from A to B. Introduction of GRAB& UBER surely also attribute to the demise of COSMO.

Making a program success in Malaysia very depend on economical scale. EV need to be economically competitive and this can be offset by the running cost from cheap or free charging. Remove petrol subsidy will add rationale to shift from ICE vehicle to EV provided that RE to power the EV reached a significant composition enough to be much lower than ICE fuel.

4. I have written to you and PM to trigger the emergency alarm bell of waste management. The country must get itself ready to face the future challenge since common people will not have the foresight and resources to pull the things out.

My suggestion is to build recycling plant that enable to convert garbage to power. As for plastic waste there is technology to convert plastic into biofuel. There is a huge potential in reverse the landfill into fuel for power generation and catalyst of biofuel production.

I have earlier on written to more than 30 city mayors about 100 city resilient program by Rockfellars foundation and even submit a proposal free of charge to DBKL hope to have a proper waste treatment including vermi-compost (compost organic waste using black soldier fly larvae and compost worm), compost machine, convert plastic to biodiesel, waste segregation and so on.

By-product from compost can be sold as fertilizer, turning waste into money. I think this will motivate people to properly treat their waste. This should work together with agriculture organization like Felda or MARDI. Of course, it may also be in the form of materials supply credit whereby certain rate of compost fertilizer in exchange for vegetables or fish or poultry supply thus lower cost of good sold and increase the profit.

Nonetheless, the priority should be focus on reduce waste meaning eliminate the need of waste in the first place. Country like France gazette to prohibit shopping mall to dump edible food thus they must either donate out or be pay extra attention in the inventory. I think it is a very good law.

Additionally, I would suggest your ministry to reduce non-biodegradeble materials and reduce one-time-use plastic waste as well as set up self-service recycling centre (probably share with school). Packaging attributed to most of the plastic waste. there are many alternative for example;

-pasta straw (almost as cheap as plastic straw), steel straw and bamboo straw to replace plastic straw.

-Fungus cultured food packaging, areca leaf plate, banana leaf plate, whole grain bowl, to replace styrofoam.

-Bamboo fibre, Hemp& Pineapple fibre to mimic leather and fabric to replace synthetic fabric such as spandex& polyster.

I have included all the suggestion above as part of the school syllabus to Ministry of Education because they are easy enough for grade 3 student to take on. School may make the facility available for public rental at very affordable rate. people enjoy DIY and if the rental is much cheaper than the items retail prices it will be profitable.

5. Rainwater harvest system.

Rainwater harvest system is gazette by-law since 2011 to require detached (i.e. bungalow& semi-bungalow) with roof more than 100sqm to install rainwater harvest system. The requirement come in enforce through UBBL (Uniform Building By-Law) in states like Johor, Kelantan, Melaka, Perak, Selangor and Perlis.

Apparently it is absurd to use treated water is for water landscape, bathing, flushing toilet. This represent 70% of total water consumption. This apparent flush away money and precious water resources. Malaysia average water consumption is 212litre/capita/day with Penang the highest consumption rate of 296 Litre/capita/day, as of 2013. This is way higher than our neighbor Thailand 90litre/capita/day, Singapore 150 Litre/capita/day and recommended 165 litre by World Health Organization.

“The United Nations study states that the world will experience 40% water shortage because of rapid population growth and climate change within 14 years."

Rainwater harvesting system reduce carbon emission by reduce the dependency of treated water. because treated water consume electricity, more so for desalination plants. Pumping to treat water and then distribute is very power consuming thus by installation of rainwater harvest system it can effectively cut the electricity demand for water treatment and distribution.

None-Revenue Water(NRW) is another problem attributed from grid tied water supply. In 2016 Perlis NRW is 60.7% then follow by Kedah, Kelantan and Pahang which recorded about 50% NRW. These are the lost treated water before reaching the end consumer. This also imply for every ringgit we spend on the water bill about 50% is wasted. Losses due to NRW are in billions ringgit. Cost to remedy NRW in order to achieve 25% NRW by 2020 is not cheap too.

Therefore, I would like to suggest Malaysia government to emulate Victorian government of Australia. The government subsidize rainwater harvesting system installation cost because that will indirectly help the government safe a lots of money in maintenance of water supply grid and create a buffer during drought or the sort. Malaysia is far more fortunate that Australia since Malaysia rainfall is about 3200mm to 5000mm per year on average.

In the addition, I would like to suggest install power generation turbine at water supply with fall or steep gradient this can efficiently capture and offset the power supply consume for the water treatment and distribution. thus offset the carbon footprint of water industry. " Lucidpipe system" is one of it. I have nothing related to them but would be glad to receive ex-gratia or commission should you decide for me to bridge between water industry and them. Water reservoir that stand unobstructed is also a good platform for solar power.

6. Capture transportation carbon emission data.

Every vehicle have official carbon emission rate. In Europe vehicle is required by law not to emit above maximum allowable CO2e. Euro1,2&5 are some of the standard. while it is good to make it as prerequisite for all public transport and government vehicle I would suggest your ministry to implement CO2e rate monitor for each vehicle and work with Transport Ministry to impose higher Road Tax on vehicle that have higher CO2e than average. This will encourage the sell of hybrid and EV as well as encourage vehicle owner to maintain their car regularly. Of course, leeway may be given for antic vehicle.

How to capture the performance of vehicle CO2e emission may be via testing from exhaust pipe and the real life petrol consumption rate per mileage which require some modification on petrol pump station to key in vehicle number and tally with the car mileage and report it yearly or right before changing possession/ownership of vehicle. 

Of course, an apps and website may be created or synchronise with the public transport app for the purpose. This allow user to easily trace their CO2 emission. With this, your ministry will able to;

- Accurately report the national average private own vehicle CO2 emission of each capacity category.

-Penalize CO2 emitter via road tax

-Peg public transport CO2e to average private own vehicle CO2e emission.

-Analyse which vehicle model, brand, parts, or even driver performance in CO2 emission in order to have more effective remedy.

What published and officially claimed by vehicle company may not reflect the truth and CO2 rate is very much depend on the vehicle maintenance and condition too.

I would like to highlight that the penalty for Road Tax shall be based on CO2e rate not the CO2e total emission because government should not restrict usage of private own vehicle but the rate of CO2e which attribute to climate change thus shall responsible for the damage of flood, landslide and etc. This is also a good opportunity to educate the public about their behaviour and action is directly link to the impact of natural disaster and cost of damage ensued.

Reference

https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2017/07/20/mb-put-in-rainwater-harvesting-system-for-future-developments/

https://m.malaysiakini.com/letters/323856

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Maybank (Malaysia)account number : 1643 1529 3268 (Tay Kian Guan)