COMMENT | Energy Asia conference: A climate failure
COMMENT | The Energy Asia conference, held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from June 26-28 was positioned as a sustainability forum that would chart the decarbonisation and energy transition pathways for Asia.
RimbaWatch, as an observer of this conference, expresses our disappointment at the outcome, which we believe to have set back real action on climate change in Malaysia, and regionally, for years.
RimbaWatch notes that the list of speakers at the conference was dominated by representatives of fossil fuel companies, fossil fuel lobbying organisations, fossil fuel contractors and politicians.
We believe that if Energy Asia was sincere about supporting real solutions to net zero, they would not have excluded activists, members of affected communities who are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and climate scientists from speaking at the conference.
They could communicate the sheer magnitude of the impacts of continued fossil fuel extraction and the urgency required to phase out fossil fuels.
Instead, RimbaWatch observed that key talks were marked by shocking anti-climate rhetoric which advocated for more extraction of oil and gas, referred to net-zero science as ‘confusing’ and ‘unrealistic’, greenwashed gas as a clean fuel, and falsely claimed that net-zero would impact economic development.
All of this rhetoric was spoken solely by individuals who have a vested interest in continued oil and gas production.
This rhetoric is in direct opposition to established climate science. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conclude that current environmental policies place us on a pathway for a 3.2 degrees Celsius temperature rise by 2100, the impacts of which would be catastrophic, such as the submergence of most of Kedah and Selangor.
The IPCC has made it clear that even existing fossil fuel infrastructure is incompatible with a 1.5 degrees Celsius future, and that there is absolutely no allowance for fossil fuel expansion in a liveable future.
Omitted facts
Further, a United Nations Expert Group has stated that net-zero and fossil fuel expansion are mutually exclusive. These facts were omitted from many such discussions.
This anti-climate rhetoric also ignored the fact that renewable energy is already the cheapest form of energy in the world and that fossil fuels, including natural gas, are the highest emitting and most dangerous energy sources in the world in terms of death rates associated with energy production.
It also ignored the fact that the cost of replacing the world’s energy systems with renewable energy would be recouped in just six years and that achieving net zero by 2050 for Malaysia would result in the highest net-GDP growth and job creation of any forward-looking economic policy projection.
RimbaWatch further notes that the booths at Energy Asia were mostly irrelevant to climate solutions.
For example, Petronas Energy Park’s centrepiece was a Formula One car surrounded by an array of displays on waste management, corporate social responsibility and a Mesra shop, none of which addressed Petronas’s need to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.
Besides this, there was a large concentration of displays on carbon capture and hydrogen, which has been criticised by activists as false solutions as they are energy-intensive and unproven at a scale large enough to result in meaningful emissions reductions.
We also observed that delegates at booths were unable to answer basic questions regarding their organisation’s decarbonisation actions and could only respond to corporate concerns such as investment opportunities.
Finally, it must be noted that Energy Asia’s largest sponsors included Aramco and Shell, who are together responsible for an estimated seven percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
RimbaWatch is of the opinion that the exclusion of climate science and proven renewable solutions and the use of anti-climate rhetoric created an echo chamber during Energy Asia, whereby fossil fuel delegates lauded the “actions” of other fossil fuel delegates.
They demonstrate no real intention to reduce fossil fuel production or change their business models, meanwhile allowing global emissions to increase and the impacts of climate change to grow in frequency and intensity.
There is no place for fossil fuels in a net-zero 2050 scenario. We caution the organisers of Energy Asia, in particular, Petronas, that if they wish to be sincere about sustainability, future conferences should make climate scientists, activists, and affected communities the backbone of the event, and not the target of attacks or victims of exclusion.
RIMBAWATCH is an environmental watchdog building an independent, timely and open inventory of data and analytics on deforestation, climate change and human rights issues in Malaysia.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
