Green transport the way forward

KUALA LUMPUR: The yearly hike in the number of vehicles clogging up city roads has resulted in a pressing need for the adoption of more green transport initiatives in Malaysia.

Currently, about 90 percent of vehicles in Malaysia are fossilfuelled and land transport is known to be among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

This situation warrants more aggressive mobilisation of measures to facilitate the transition from fossil fuels to green energy such as biofuels and energy harnessed from renewable sources such as solar, hydro and wind, said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia senior lecturer in electrical and electronic engineering Associate Prof Dr Sawal Hamid Md Ali.

The National Transport Policy (NTP), which is a blueprint for the transport sector from 2019 to 2030, includes a green transport ecosystem as one of its main thrusts.

Budget 2020, which was tabled at the Dewan Rakyat last Friday, has allocated RM450 million to acquire up to 500 electric buses of various sizes for public transport in selected cities nationwide.

The NTP and budget allocation are proof of the government's commitment towards creating greener cities for the well-being of the people, which is in line with its shared prosperity vision.

However, the number of environmentally-friendly vehicles currently plying on Malaysian roads and proposed under Budget 2020 is hardly sufficient to realise the true essence of the term green transport, said Sawal Hamid, who is attached to UKM's Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment.

To get there, he added, the government would need to formulate comprehensive shortand long-term steps to thrust Malaysia towards becoming a green technology nation.

The use of bicycles and electric cars, motorcycles, buses and trains (equipped with an ultra capacitor), as well as carpooling and walking constitute green transport measures.

"Although there are assertions that electric vehicles are not exactly 'green' because they need to be charged with electricity from the power grid, they still qualify as green transport as the electricity for charging the vehicles can be obtained from renewable sources like solar and hydro," Sawal Hamid told Bernama.

He said it is for this very reason why the government should look into the use of green technology when implementing initiatives to encourage the use of electric vehicles.

"Presently, Malaysia mainly depends on coal for power generation," he said.