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.
|