Najib's budget has no meaningful incentives to promote and develop green technology in Malaysia, says a green advocate.
KOTA KINABALU: A disappointing Budget 2012 has left green technology enthusiasts in Sabah wondering if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is truly interested in promoting and developing green technology.
Najib’s decision earlier this year to call off the construction of a proposed coal-fired power plant in Sabah following a widespread public outcry over its effects had given hope that his administration would be more receptive to green technology.
But last Friday’s Budget 2012 announcement has now left them casting doubts on his commitment.
According to Sabah PKR secretary Dr Roland Chia, who is also a greenie, the federal government has failed to take a pragmatic approach to developing the potential of green technology.
He said there has been little development in this area since Najib declared his vision of turning Putrajaya and Cyberjaya into green technology centres.
“All we have is the offer of RM1.5 billion in soft loans for green technology companies and a pledge to reduce Malaysia’s carbon footprint by 40 percent by 2025.
“But since then, there has been no further development in this area.
“What we had was the recently organised massive Green Technology exhibition in September called IGEM hosted by the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry,” he said.
Chia said it was crucial that the country took a pro-active stand in championing the development of green technology and wooing investors to the industry.
“It is crucial that we develop green technology so that the country will have options once fossil fuel gets depleted.
“I just hope that all this talk about green technology is not just mere lip service to the environment,” Chia added.
No incentives
Najib, when attending the 2009 Copenhagen climate change summit, had boldly declared that “Malaysia is adopting an indicator of a voluntary reduction of up to 40 percent in terms of emissions intensity of GDP (gross domestic product) by the year 2020 compared to 2005 levels”.
At the time, he said the National Green Technology Centre had been tasked with formulating a green technology development action plan which would “set standards and promote green technology”.
But in an immediate reaction to Najib’s 2009 declaration, the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) director Gurmit Singh had reportedly said that there was “no way” this was achievable.
“No way can we attain this level of reduction by 2020 and Malaysia definitely cannot commit itself to such a claim,” he had said.
Yesterday, Chia in a statement said the Budget 2012 offered no real incentives to encourage householders or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to go green.
“The budget does not offer incentives to households and SMEs to install solar panels to harness energy for their daily consumption.
“This will help the country’s bid to reduce carbon footprint by 40 percent by 2025 against the backdrop of increasing electricity tariffs.
“How can the prime minister hope to achieve reduction of carbon footprint without the support of householders and SMEs?” he asked.
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