GLOBAL carbon emissions from fossil fuels surged to a record high last year, with no sign that the world has reached a peak.
Burning fossil fuels resulted in CO₂ (carbon dioxide) releases hitting 40 billion tonnes last year, pushing atmospheric CO₂ levels 52% higher than they were in pre-industrial times.
Emissions growth overall has slowed, fortunately, thanks to the global adoption of solar panels and electric vehicles.
We saw in Part Two that Malaysia scored its first plus point with a radically new solar panel installation scheme that will make every roof dance in the sun, provided the details when released are truly groundbreaking. We concluded Part Two with -4 points.
Resurrection of EVs
In Part Three, we take a drive with the electric vehicle (EV). Has Malaysia stepped on the pedal or is the EV going at a snail’s pace? Let us place the EV in the context of its long history.
The EV, in the form of milk delivery vans, was introduced in the 1970s in Britain.
This columnist, as a visiting Commonwealth fellowship journalist, enjoyed the good fortune of being invited by a milkman to ride in his EV van as it made short trips in the city neighbourhoods.
However, the low capabilities of the EV, restricting its use to neighbourhood trips and growing resistance from the oil industry towards any technological improvements to the EV, ensured that they almost suffered extinction until their miraculous resurrection in 2004 – thanks to Elon Musk’s Tesla.
His Tesla was the first production of an all-electric car to travel more than 320km per charge.
Japan’s Mitsubishi entered the scene in 2009 and Nissan followed soon after. The global stock of EVs grew steadily in the 2010s, with European and Chinese carmakers joining in.
The first EVs sold in Malaysia were the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Nissan Leaf in 2013. This marked the beginning of the EV market in our country. However, EV adoption in Malaysia has been slow as protectionist measures are in place.
Hence, prices for many years were all above RM130,000, and the saying, “EVs are only meant for the rich”, became household words. Tax exemptions introduced in Budget 2022 made no dent: if you own a petrol car less than five years old, would you dump it for an EV priced above RM100,000?
In 2023, the BYD Dolphin and Neta V entered the Malaysian market but their prices on the road with insurance still exceeded RM100,000. The Proton e.Mas 7, launched in December 2024, is priced at RM109,800.
In China, the BYD Seagull is priced at just US$9,700 (RM43,141), making it possible for one out of every two cars sold in China to be an EV.
EVs in Malaysia cost upwards of RM100,000, not because EVs are expensive by nature but the high price is due to restrictions set by the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry that requires an imported EV to tag its price in our market above RM100,000. This restriction of course runs against climate action.
In Malaysia, EVs account for only 5.6% of the total car industry volume. For our snail-paced response to climate change, the EV earns Malaysia no points.
The government should incentivise the committees of all houses of worship to purchase one EV as a show of frontline leadership in climate action.
If all religions participate, it gets to be a commitment that brings religions together.
Two concerns deter most top-income earners from buying. They are the battery range and charging infrastructure, and battery life and replacement cost.
The government could bypass these concerns by getting the oil industry to reward hybrid owners with incentives.
Hybrids priced below RM200,000 include Proton X90 Mild Hybrid, Honda e:HEV and Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid.
Our climate score remains at -4 points.
Ecological crisis
We shall now look at two related issues: traffic congestion and air pollution. Remember that our holistic analysis sweeps in all three facets of the great ecological crisis. These facets are climate change, biodiversity loss and mass pollution.
Klang Valley residents have noticed that year after year, traffic is getting heavier. However, it is not the pro-car policies since the 1980s that resulted in Klang Valley’s spreading congestion; it is the failure of transport authorities to prioritise bus services.
Car owners in many countries take the bus rather than drive to work daily. Research by three French transport associations last year found that 81% of Europeans living in five European capitals – Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm and Warsaw – use public transport for day-to-day travel. For half of them, a bus stop or rapid transit station is just five minutes away.
In Malaysia, there is near-complete absence of first- and last-mile connectivity, meaning that the buses ply only profitable routes.
For saturation coverage, obviously more than half the routes will be unprofitable if only large buses are used. In Malaysia, there is no concept of bus transport as a must-have public service.
Ride-hailing service is costly if you were to use it daily for connectivity. Demand-responsive transit is also not practical as it requires you to book a ride.
Buses operate solely for profit because the government counts only the cost of bus operations; it does not factor in the cost of manpower hours lost in traffic jams, the cost of wasteful petrol burning and the environmental damage.
Petrol car exhaust contributes to carbon emissions primarily through the combustion of fuel in the engine.
Petrol is a hydrocarbon that consists mainly of carbon and hydrogen. When it burns in the engine, hydrocarbon reacts with oxygen (O₂) from the air to produce CO₂, the most significant greenhouse gas emitted by petrol cars that traps heat in the atmosphere contributing to global warming.
If combustion is not complete due to insufficient oxygen or inefficient engine performance, it also produces carbon monoxide (CO), a toxic gas that forms when there is not enough oxygen for complete combustion.
On average, burning one litre of petrol produces about 2.3kg of CO₂. How much petrol is burnt on choke-filled Klang Valley roads every working day when even the suburban lanes are now seeing bumper-to-bumper traffic? Each petrol car emits 4kg on average.
With three million petrol cars on Klang Valley roads every working day, some 12 million kg of CO₂ is spewed out per year by all the Klang Valley petrol cars on working days.
Klang Valley also has approximately six million petrol motorcycles, mostly used for deliveries. Factoring in the heavy frequency of daily trips, their emissions equal that of the car population.
Even the British newsweekly The Economist has commented on Klang Valley’s monstrous traffic jams. For preferring to keep a monster instead of developing excellent bus transportation, Malaysia loses one point. The score is now back to -5.
Impact of air pollution on health
There is another cost that the government ignores: the cost of air pollution on health. Roughly 24 million kg of CO₂ is breathed in by Klang Valley residents per year. This works out to 90,000kg per day, except Sundays, but inclusive of Saturday traffic at half the working-day volume. If you live in a high-density traffic area, you are breathing in 10kg of CO₂ a year.
The byproduct CO reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood. Petrol also emits nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide, which cause respiratory issues and increase cancer risk, as well as benzene and volatile organic compounds linked to leukaemia and other cancers. Additionally, it releases polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with lung and skin cancer, sulfur dioxide that causes respiratory problems, and formaldehyde, which irritates the eyes, nose and throat while penetrating deep into the lungs.
Worst is the cancer-causing PM2.5 particle. PM means “particulate matter” and the number 2.5 refers to fine inhalable particles with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometres and smaller.
Harvard University researchers have discovered that not only does PM2.5 directly affect the foetus, leaving it vulnerable to asthma, but it also increases the risk of cerebral palsy which causes infant disability.
Prolonged exposure to heavy traffic pollution increases the likelihood of heart ailments and lung cancer.
The Health Ministry revealed last month that nearly 250,000 Malaysians have been diagnosed with cancer over the past seven years, with the number of deaths from the disease rising each year.
Lung cancer is among the five most common types of cancer affecting Malaysians, according to the ministry. Cancer is the third leading cause of premature deaths after pneumonia and heart failure.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation, has classified outdoor air pollution as a Group One carcinogen, meaning there is strong evidence that it causes cancer in humans.
The simplest, most affordable way to provide first- and last-mile connectivity to the nearest rail transit station or to a nearby destination is for existing bus services to use van-sized buses for local routes so that every household is within five or 10 minutes walking distance from a bus stop.
Additionally, buses should run at intervals of no more than 15 minutes during the daytime.
Due to the government’s failure to address the threat to lives, Malaysia loses another point, bringing the score to -6.
In Part Four, we shall examine whether Malaysia’s stand in the geopolitical field earns us a plus point.
Joachim Ng champions interfaith harmony.
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