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Electricity consumption in buildings will rise and increase GHG emissions. The biggest challenge for energy and carbon emissions reduction, is not only the relatively cheap price of electricity, but to refurbish existing buildings to become more energy efficient and lessen its environmental impact. In the " age of human " , or the Anthropocene, human activities are directly changing the planet's ecosystems through the influx of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), in particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). This century marked the highest amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted, breaking records of the past 650,000 years, pushing the climate to 'a point of no return'. Since we spend most of our time within buildings, it is thus important to ensure that our living environment is either positively impacting the environment or does not negatively impact the environment. As developing countries raise their standards of living and services, electricity consumption in buildings is expected to rise exponentially. This has been proven, with the increase of GHG emissions from developing countries in Asia in the last three decades. The building sector's primary contribution of GHG emissions is the result of fossil fuels used to generate electricity, or for building operations in the form of fuel combustions. Electricity is the main form of energy consumed in the building sector, with nearly 60% of the world's total consumption, and commercial buildings in developed countries like the United States and Japan are driving peak demand and is expected to rise further. The bulk of GHG emissions from the building sector are largely produced in the operational phase (80-90%) from energy consumption for heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation and appliances. In the wake of the President of the United States' regrettable decision to rescind from the Paris Agreement, which seeks to ensure " a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius " , a Convention ratified by 148 Parties (countries), normal citizens, industry players, innovators, corporations, mayors and governors have taken independent steps in pledging their commitment to the Paris Agreement. Climate change skeptics erroneously believe that the planetary system is too vast to be impacted by human beings, and that we could not possibly alter natural elements and the natural course of earth's ecosystems. Imagine this: the Earth is balancing on a slice of ice in a boiling pot, sooner or later the pot will start to boil, the ice will melt, and Earth will drown. We have not altered the natural course of melting point, but simply manipulated the element of water through the application of heat to boil the water. This is the simple explanation to Global Warming, the trapping of heat in our atmosphere as a result of all the carbon we have emitted. Researchers at Centre for Building, Construction & Tropical Architecture (BuCTA), University of Malaya, conduct research that encompasses a wide range of issues from code compliance to sustainability, from energy conservation to post-occupancy evaluations, and aims at providing an impetus for research in the application of building science principles to the design, and construction of buildings. The research led by Dr Suzaini Zaid has investigated wide ranges on the building sector impact on climate change, including:
The increase in global warming, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions has gained attention in various regions. In Malaysia, the government announced a voluntary commitment to reduce 40% of CO 2 emissions by 2020 and to refurbish 100 government buildings. Existing buildings make a large contribution to energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, therefore refurbishing existing buildings is an essential strategy to achieve the commitment. There is no single assessment scheme for building refurbishment in Malaysia and hence, this study aims to develop a comprehensive list of assessment themes and sub-themes for building refurbishment purposes. It examines and compares 10 assessment schemes from various countries: BREEAM, LEED, CASBEE, BEAM Plus, GBLS, Green Star, HQE, Green Mark, GBI and MyCrest. The findings revealed fourteen themes that were considered for assessment: management , sustainable site, transport, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), water, waste, material, energy, pollution, innovation, economic, social, culture and quality of services. Energy and IEQ are dominant themes in all assessment schemes. Most of the schemes are considered relatively weak in evaluating economic and social aspects, in comparison to environmental aspects. The assessment of quality of services is overlooked in most of the schemes, including GBI and MyCrest in Malaysia. Outcomes from this paper will form the baseline for a new environmental assessment scheme that aimed at non-domestic building refur-bishments in Malaysia. A new model is proposed for the development of an environmental assessment scheme in the further stage.
E3S Web of Conferences
Lack of Energy Efficiency Legislation in the Malaysian Building Sector Contributes to Malaysia’s Growing GHG Emissions2014 •
Malaysia’s carbon emissions grew by +235.6% from 1990 to 2005, largely due to an increase in national energy demand of 210.7% from 1990 to 2004. This unparalleled carbon emission growth, along with business-as-usual (BAU) practices will put Malaysia at high risk for carbon lock-in and a very unsustainable path of development. Malaysia clearly needs to make significant and urgent changes in its policy, economy, industries and lifestyle in order to reduce its climate change impacts. In 2010 Malaysia announced a voluntary commitment to reduce 40% of its greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by 2020 (from 1990 levels). Without emissions mitigation and conservation policies, Malaysia is unlikely to meet its emissions reduction targets. Presently, Malaysia has no energy efficiency legislation in its growing building sector. This paper reviews existing building policies and energy efficiency measures in Malaysia and highlights the need to implement mandatory energy efficiency building codes in reducing the sector’s impact on climate change.
Malaysia’s electricity consumption is increasing exponentially as it gears towards becoming a developed nation by year 2020. This paper is aimed at policy development in terms of energy efficiency and building design as Malaysia has yet to establish any mandatory energy efficiency or energy performance building code. The focus on public low-cost housing projects is important as it is administered by government agencies and provides possible streamlining of proposed energy policies for the housing sector. Presented in this paper are findings from fieldwork conducted to investigate the energy performance and green house gas (GHG) emissions from the building operation of two public low-cost housing projects in Kuala Lumpur. The baseline calculations use UNEP–SBCI’s Common Carbon Metric tool to provide project-specific calculations of energy and emissions intensity with its bottom-up approach, while presenting a national scale projection using its top-down approach. Findings from bottom-up analysis suggest that Malaysian public low-cost housing households consume more than benchmarks set by the World Energy Council and the International Energy Agency, in terms of Building Energy Index (BEI) of kwh/m2/year. This is a reflection of the absence of building energy efficiency legislation in Malaysia, both for residential and non-residential buildings. The importance of this research lies in its focus on a developing country experiencing rapid urbanisation and climate change effects.
Greenhouse gas (GHGs) inventory provide a basis to strategize the climate adaptation and mitigation actions at city level. The study adopt the Global Protocol for Community-Scale (GPC) and analyzes the scopes and sectors of the 2013 of GHGs inventory data of Melaka Stata processed by using the online software application, Harmonized Emissions Analysis Tool (HEAT+)). The HEAT analysis generated the per capita GHGs emission for Melaka State is 4.59 tones of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e). Sector-wise of GPC, the top four GHGs emitters found in industry 39.6% (1,548.412 tCO2e), transportation 29.9% (1,160,333 tCO2e), commercial 14.7% (574,844 tCO2e) and residential 12.8% (499,655 tCO2e). The GHGs emissions source of patterns revealed 72.1% Scope 1, 27.5% Scope 2 and 0.51% Scope 3. Based on the grid electricity, about 60% or 2,332 tCO2e resulted from electricity consumption and GHGs emissions in the buildings owned by the Historical Malacca City Council and 27% or about 1,059.6 tCO2e comes from Hang Tuah Jaya Municipal Council. The prioritization of climate mitigation actions suggested by adopting several low carbon based-technology supported by command and control as well as market-based policies interventions. As the biggest energy consumers, leading by examples suggested for government’s building in lowering their the GHGs emission. It was followed by commercial and residential building by using various energy efficiency strategies proposed in this study, i.e. decentralized energy. Demand need to be created for bio-energy fuels known to result in net carbon emissions. Manufacturing and services are the two dominant economic sectors in Melaka that have chance to adopt intensified greener and cleaner technology. The adaptation strategy for clean and low carbon transport need to promotes active travel modes. Authors: Irina Safitri Zen, Mohd Hafizam bin Mustapha & Muhammad Ali Zulfikar. 2018. Strategizing the Global Protocol for Community Scale of Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories for Cities in Melaka State, Malaysia. ASIA International Multidisciplinary Conference 2018. Faculty of Management, UTM, ASIA and UniKL.
Nowadays, the world is dealing with a crisis between the limits of nature and the ambitions of mankind. The climate change issue that been mentioned globally is caused by uncontrollable greenhouse gases emissions from anthropogenic activities. This life cycle assessment study on the gasoline production is important to measure the impacts from refinery’s activities to the environment because one of the major contributors of climate change is the use fossil fuels. Petroleum refineries industry is producing fossil fuels as their main product. Gasoline is a part of their major product that has a very high demand in transportation locally and internationally. During the process of gasoline production, a lot of energy (electricity, heat, steam), raw materials and water been used to get a complete product. So, these inputs will contribute to the global warming potential or known as greenhouse gases emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane. Then, a life cycle assessment is required to perform an impact assessment for this process. This study is to achieve a comprehensive life cycle assessment of gasoline produced in a Malaysian refinery (Petronas Second Refinery, Melaka) and used in a local automobile. The functional unit is production of 1 kg gasoline. In this study using GaBi Software from PE International to develop the LCA model. The LCI database is from site database collection and GaBi databases system. The LCIA is extracted from ILCD Recommendation, LCIA TRACI and CML 2001. From the study found that the total CO2 emissions are 390.855 kg CO2-eq with highest contributor is Crude Oil Extraction process. The total CO2 emissions from gasoline production in this petroleum refinery are 6.104 Mt CO2 eq. The projection study shows the CO2 emission will increase gradually for the midterm period from 2015 to 2020 and plateau for long term period from 2020 to 2050. This projection may reduce on 2050 onwards if there is mitigation action will take to reduce the CO2 emissions. As a conclusion, the major environmental impact from the life cycle of gasoline is global warming potential.
This paper briefly provides an overview of the sectoral energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Malaysia. The paper also highlights the potentials of GHG reduction by implementing energy efficiency in the building sector. Malaysia's total demand of energy increased from 1,244 Petajoules (PJ) in 2000 to 1,631.7 PJ in 2005. Commercial and residential buildings, alone, account for about 13% of total energy consumption and 48% of electricity consumption. The escalating consumption of energy that heavily relied on fossil fuels had resultant significant increment in emission of GHG (mainly carbon dioxide) from the sector. Over the years, GHG emissions have been increasing in Malaysia. In 2000, the total CO 2 emission from energy sector is 118,806 kilotonne. Per capita emission rose from 4.21 tonnes in 1994 to 6.29 tonnes in 2001. A significant share of these emissions can be avoided cost effectively through improved energy efficiency, while providing the same or higher level of energy services. In this regard, greater use of energy efficient technologies or options and behavioral changes can substantially reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from the building sector. The paper shows that Malaysia has a strong need and great potential to apply EE strategies to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions in buildings and construction.
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews
A review on global solar energy policyTo overcome the negative impacts on the environment and other problems associated with fossil fuels have forced many countries to inquire into and change to environmental friendly alternatives that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand. Solar energy is one of the best renewable energy sources with least negative impacts on the environment. Different countries have formulated solar energy policies to reducing dependence on fossil fuel and increasing domestic energy production by solar energy. This paper discusses a review about the different solar energy policies implemented on the different countries of the world. According to the 2010 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the world cumulative installed solar energy capacity was 22928.9 MW in 2009, a change of 46.9% compared to 2008. Also this paper discussed the existing successful solar energy policies of few selected countries. Based on literatures, it has been found that FIT, RPS and incentives are the most beneficial energy policies implemented by many countries around the world. These policies provide significant motivation and interest for the development and use of renewable energy technologies. Also the status of solar energy policy for Malaysia is investigated and compared with that of the successful countries in the world.
E3S Web of Conferences
Assessment of Carbon Emission Reduction for Buildings Projects in Malaysia-A Comparative Analysis2014 •
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
A review on global wind energy policy2017 •
Biofuels - At What Cost? Government support for biodiesel in Malaysia
Government support for biodiesel in Malaysia2008 •
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews
Current perspective of the renewable energy development in Malaysia2011 •
International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Energy and associated emission analysis in office buildings2008 •
Melaka Green Technology Corporation
MELAKA STATE CLIMATE ACTION PLAN 2020 -2030 Prepared by2018 •
International Journal of Global Warming
An overview of prospects and challenges in the field of climate change in Malaysia2011 •
Evaluation and program planning
Application of theory-based evaluation for the critical analysis of national biofuel policy: A case study in Malaysia2015 •
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Energy policy and alternative energy in Malaysia: Issues and challenges for sustainable growth2010 •
Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy
Social acceptance of solar energy in Malaysia: users’ perspective2015 •
2019 •
IAIS Malaysia Bulletin on Islam and Contemporary Issues No. 41 (Nov.-Dec. 2017)
Early British Converts to Islam2009 3rd International Conference on Energy and Environment (ICEE)
National Energy Policies and the electricity sector in Malaysia2009 •
Suzaini Zaid