Minister defends greenhouse gas emission after under-reporting charge

 

Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has defended Malaysia’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting mechanism after the country was accused of under-reporting to the UN.

This was in response to an investigative report by The Washington Post that said “skewed data” had enabled Malaysia to portray “73 percent” less emissions.

The US publication also disputed Malaysia’s claim that its trees were consuming carbon at a rate that was “four times faster” than those in Indonesian forests.

According to the article, this claim resulted in Malaysia reporting 81 million tons of emissions to the UN in 2016 despite releasing 422 million tons that year.

Malaysia was used as an example of how many countries under-report greenhouse gas emissions to the UN.

Responding to the article, Tuan Ibrahim defended Putrajaya’s report to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In a three-paged statement yesterday, he said the report was produced via a “very rigorous process” that was in line with all UNFCCC requirements.

This process included “multiple stakeholder consultations” with experts, academics, NGOs, the private sector and data providers.

“The information used in developing the Biennial Update Report (BUR) is based on national data and published scientific literature and is reported transparently,” he said.

To emphasise his point, Tuan Ibrahim said UNFCCC-appointed experts were in the midst of scrutinising Malaysia’s report.

“Under the UNFCCC BUR process, Malaysia has undergone three sessions of international consultative and analysis and two sessions of facilitative sharing of views thus far.

“The whole process is based on transparency, accuracy, consistency, comparability and completeness principles.

“As such, Malaysia regrets the action of The Washington Post in questioning the integrity of the UNFCCC process and outcome,” the minister added.

The article in question, entitled 'Countries’ climate pledges built on flawed data, Post investigation finds', had questioned Malaysia’s data integrity but not the UNFCCC process.

Tuan Ibrahim is in Glasgow, United Kingdom, for the UN Convention on Climate Change (COP26).  - Mkini