Background

Climate Change, or Global Warming, is one of the most serious environmental threats of the 21st century. It is the only global environmental problem that receives the attention of heads of states and governments, and has been on the agenda for nearly all the G8 meetings for the past three years.

As a first global political response to the threat of climate change, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 agreed upon the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Malaysia is a Party to the UNFCCC and has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. As a developing country, Malaysia has no quantitative commitments under the Kyoto Protocol at present. However, together with all other countries, Malaysia is already committed under the UNFCCC to, inter alia, "formulate, implement, publish and regularly update national and, where appropriate, regional programmes containing measures to mitigate climate change by addressing anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases …".

In 1992, CETDEM, together with the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia (EPSM) and the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) formed an alliance, the Malaysian Climate Change Group (MCCG). Perak Consumers' Association (PCA) has joined the MCCG in Aug 2002 as a member. This network of people and resources have been working both behind the scenes and on the frontlines and are active in attending international conferences, organising public talks and fora, creating informative materials, to try to mobilise as many sectors of Malaysian society as possible to address the problems of climate, both local and global. Currently, the MCCG is in the midst of assessing how to expand its network and bring more committed public interest organisations on board.

At the start of 2002, the MCCG launched a new three-year public awareness project, Mobilizing Malaysians on Climate Change (MMCC). CETDEM, as the coordinating secretariat for the MCCG, administered the project, with funding from DANCED. The project has been successfully completed in May 2005.