Tuan Ibrahim gets flak for saying Malaysia not vulnerable to climate change

 

Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man's attempt to explain why Malaysia was not invited to the US-organised Climate Action Summit has courted more flak.

This was after Bernama reported Tuan Ibrahim (photo, above) as saying that Malaysia wasn't invited because it's not a country categorised as vulnerable to climate change.

"Disappointed with Tuan Ibrahim. The Southeast Asia region will be hit hard. The impacts are already felt.

"From your logic, why isn't the Philippines invited, they were swallowed by stronger typhoons last year," said Klima Action Malaysia, an NGO focussing on climate change issues, said on Twitter.

"Droughts, heatwaves, heavy precipitation, floods - extreme weather events have led to loss and damage in various sectors, affecting the lives and livelihood of the people of this country," it added.

Tuan Ibrahim was responding to former finance minister Lim Guan Eng who asked why Malaysia was excluded from the summit.

The minister explained the summit's objective was to encourage large economies to collectively contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gases.

Tuan Ibrahim added that there were many countries that stood out in the climate change agenda such as Sweden, Switzerland and Thailand but were also not invited.

The Environment and Water Ministry, in a subsequent clarification, said: "The public knows that all countries in the world, including Malaysia, are impacted by climate change".

It explained that Tuan Ibrahim's statement was specific to the criteria that determines if a country was invited to the climate summit, which will take place on April 22 and 23.

The ministry said the criteria are developed countries that contribute collectively to 80 percent of the greenhouse gases in the world and countries that experience serious and drastic impact from climate change which are categorised as "climate-vulnerable countries".

Last month, a study by a group of UK universities had predicted that Malaysia's credit rating will be among the worst hit by climate change. - Mkini