Academic Showcase
Combating Climate Change - Professor Dominic Foo
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.
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Now and then, we hear people talking about climate change. It looks like it is getting more serious since we have been hearing about it more often in the past few years. Indeed it is – not only something that others have experienced outside Malaysia, it is becoming more apparent now in Malaysia too.
You will have heard about recent climate induced disasters which are impacting many countries around the world. These natural disasters will remind you of the 2014 floods on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, the worst the country has ever experienced. Reports have shown that extreme weather, e.g. prolonged droughts, strong winds and heavy downpours in different parts of the world, are closely linked to climate change.
Climate change
What leads to climate change? Scientists believe that it has to do with the high level of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere. Scientific reports show that CO2 levels are now at the highest level ever in the past 400,000 years. During the Ice Age, CO2 levels were around 200 parts per million (ppm) and before the 1950s, the CO2 levels were around 280 ppm. Since then, CO2 levels have risen exponentially and surpassed 400 ppm for the first time in history in 2013. The latest statistics show that we reached 407 ppm of CO2 as of 2018. This issue was addressed during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) held in Paris in 2015 where most countries signed the Paris Agreement. The agreement proposed a long-term goal to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C. It is hoped that doing this would substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.
You may ask, "For a regular person, what can I do to tackle climate change?" Well, there are simple things we can do in our daily lives such as:
- Turn off lights when they are not in use. Reducing electricity consumption translates to the burning of less fossil fuels, this being the primary source for CO2 emissions. Reducing consumption helps as electricity generation in Malaysia is mainly through the use of coal and natural gas, each contributing around 43% of the total electricity production as of 2016. At the same time, hydropower and other renewables such as solar power, constitute only around 13% of electricity production. These fossil fuels generate a substantial amount of CO2.
- Use public transport. In Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley our state of the art Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is helping to reduce CO2 emissions. We have seen more and more people using the MRT since its launch in July 2017 meaning less cars, less petrol burned and therefore less CO2 released to the air. The added bonus is it also saves you from the hustle of traffic jams and saves money on toll and parking charges.
- Recycle Trash. Separate your trash accordingly (glass, plastics, paper, aluminium) putting them in dedicated recycling bins. Recycling translates to a more efficient use of resources directly leading to less extraction of natural resources, i.e. fossil fuels. If you read newspapers regularly why not recycle them by giving to the trash lorries that come to collect household waste (and get a small saving in return).
- Reduce usage of single-use plastics. If you have not done so, then start taking your reusable containers and bags when you go shopping as well as when purchasing takeaway food. If you have to use plastic bags, please be sure to reuse them as much as you can. Know that you can politely decline plastic bags when offered, remember less plastic used means less consumption of natural resources (plastic is made from crude oil too) and hence less CO2 emission. The 6 R's are helpful to use: REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, ROT, REPURPOSE
I am sure you are keen to help make the world a better place after all that's why you are reading this article. Well done if you have started practising the above suggestions and remember it's never too late to start if you have not. Please also encourage your family and friends to do the same. We have only one Earth, so everyone should do their part in reducing the effects of climate change.
*Prof Ir Dr Dominic C. Y. Foo is a research scholar who works on waste minimisation and CO2 reduction for the process industry.
**The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of BERNAMA