Promoting green growth under environmental law as measures to reduce carbon emission and regulate air pollution: why it matters for Malaysia?

The risk of global climate change has seen efforts taken by nations all over the world to reduce their carbon emission as steps to limit the increase of global temperature. For many developing countries, tackling carbon emission is a complicated task due to a number of environmental constraints they faced including inefficient technology, weak governance and low per capita income. Insofar as Malaysia is concerned, main contributors towards environmental pollution have always been associated with economic-related activities including that from industrial, construction and plantation sectors. In order to uphold the objective of sustainable development, as early as the 1970s, Malaysia has already applied low-carbon and high-efficiency economic system that aims at sustainable growth through the introduction of regulations to manage industrial and other types of pollution. This paper attempts to highlight Malaysia’s initiatives under environmental law in promoting green growth, particularly towards the control of air pollution from activities such as motor-vehicle emissions, industrial discharge and open burning. From a different perspective, as a progressive Muslim country with consistent economic development and growth rate as well as political and social stability, it is pertinent for Malaysia to take the lead in green growth management. Previously Malaysia has managed to effectively incorporate Islamic banking into the conventional financial system and harmonized its application with the western practice. In the context of green growth, if Malaysia can demonstrate how pollution and carbon can successfully be reduced through a responsible development of a resource-based economy, then it could become yet another model for other Muslim nations in environmental sustainability. Abstract: green growth, carbon emission, air pollution, environmental law, developing countr

Indicators for sustainable development: understanding the criteria for a successful sustainability relevant to environmental law in Malaysia

The concept of `sustainable development’ emerges in almost every discussion of environmental issues, be it at national or international levels. Over the years, especially after the famous 1987 Brundtland Commission’s Report, this concept has become more widely accepted by the policy-makers all over the world, including Malaysia. However, despite having received much international recognition and acceptance, the concept is still enigmatic and elusive, and there appears to be significant vagueness about exactly what meaning its exact denotation supposed to convey. This article seeks to examine the emergence and development of the concept of sustainable development at the international level, and to peruse its possible or suitable definitions. The objectives of such examination are to identify indicators that have greatly influenced the major discourse in the legal theories derived from this concept. For Malaysia and elsewhere, these sustainability indicators can be applied to appraise the effectiveness of legal mechanism in environmental protection and pollution control. The article concludes that understanding the criteria of successful sustainability allows a nation to meet the ongoing challenge of balancing present needs against those of the future. It is through this understanding that challenges and opportunities for sustainable development become clear