Academic showcase

Many countries have committed to reduce their CO2 emissions under the Paris Agreement (COP21). These voluntary cuts, known as intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), are meant to limit temperature rise of the global earth to no more than 2°C by the year 2100. Above this threshold, climate change will become catastrophic. The problem is that deep emissions cuts are needed to achieve this goal; according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s net carbon emissions need to be reduced to zero by mid-century. To reduce CO2 emissions, various low-, zero- or negative-emissions technologies are to be used. This requires decision makers to balance economic, environmental and societal goals, while using specialist information from scientists. An intuitive planning tool known as Carbon Emissions Pinch Analysis (CEPA) has been co-developed by Prof Dominic Foo and his colleague Prof Raymond Tan (De La Salle University Philippines) for the planning of energy-climate nexus. CEPA consists of various graphical, algebraic and optimisation techniques that allow the optimum allocation of different energy sources to different demands, with carbon emissions limits. These tools aid high-level decision-making through a “big picture” approach, and make the energy planning tasks much easier.

This policy briefly provides recommendations to enable equal participation in education among children with disabilities in ASEAN countries. It specifically calls for governments and schools to adopt inclusive education recommendations which incorporates the teacher training of inclusive principles, the allocation of funding to build relevant infrastructure and the development of new curriculum.

Policy makers should use the carbon emissions pinch analysis (CEPA) as a graphical technique to allow the energy-climate nexus to be analysed visually and easily. This will help decision makers achieve the emission cuts they need. We illustrate the usefulness of CEPA by applying it to the case of Malaysia as a representative for transition economies. 

Popular-science article by Steve Stewart-Williams in Nautilus magazine. The article is all about the nature and nurture of sex differences in aggression.

In this article of his bi-weekly column in ‘Sinchew Daily’, a Chinese language newspaper in Malaysia, Dr Teo wrote about challenges and choices for those intending to further their education at universities during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The article is presented in Mandarin.    

In this phone interview published by “The Oriental Daily News”, a Chinese language newspaper in Malaysia, Dr Teo commented about “Shared Prosperity Vision 2030”, a vision launched by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on 9 May 2019. The interview is presented in Chinese.

The policy brief discusses the importance for the British government to consider developing its own Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) strategy in light of the new post-Brexit reality it is confronted with.

Popular-science article by Steve Stewart-Williams in the BBC's Focus Magazine. It’s all about the romantic jealousy: Is it part of human nature or human culture – or a little of both?

In response to recent government measures to kick-start the creative industries in Malaysia, we look at the policy environment for the creative industries at a national level and previous funding programs. We investigate their flaws and discuss how the new programs are funding orientated without attention to broader structural and institutional problems. We note how digital is becoming synonymous with creative in many instances.