Author - jessica

Kota Kinabalu: The State Environment Protection Department (EPD) with its partners conducted 145 programmes with an outreach of 14,962 participants throughout Sabah in two years. Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Assaffal Alian said the programmes were part of the initiatives under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry and the Conference of Earth Environment from Akita, Japan (CEEA), in 2017. "This is a major achievement and I hope that more programmes can be conducted so that the people will be more aware that even their smallest actions are important to reduce global warming," he said in a statement, Wednesday. "The MoU which is about to end by March, this year, is a great platform for Sabah to educate the people on the importance of taking the necessary measures to curb the rise of global heat. "We need to become a sustainable society by adhering to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the world leaders in 2015. "I hope CEEA will be able to purse the next phase of the MoU to expand the awareness activities to capture a wider spectrum of the community." Towards this end, Assaffal reiterated that the State Government will give due mandate to EPD to further strengthen its roles of ensuring environmental sustainability, especially, on climate change in Sabah. The MoU aims to ensure that awareness programmes on climate change are promoted among the people. EPD is the implementing department and will eventually be acknowledged as the Centre for Climate Change Action for Sabah, while the programmes are coordinated and monitored by the Japan Centre for Climate Change Actions (JCCCA). Meanwhile, Assaffal lead a working visit to Akita and Tokyo, Japan, recently as part of the indicators in the MoU. He was accompanied by EPD Director Mohd Yusrie Abdullah and other senior officials. During the trip, Assafal said the delegates observed the processing of solid waste at the Comprehensive Environmental Centre operated by Akita City Hall. "A mega solar power plant is also housed in this centre."All solid wastes are separated for recycling and for combustion inside the gasification and melting furnace at a very high temperature between 1,700 and 1,800 degree Celsius. "For environmental countermeasures in the gasification and melting furnace, gases such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, dioxins and other hazardous components are neutralised by the addition of limestone, and the furnace's design also confined these gases from being generated," he said. Assaffal said, the system resolved many environmental issues related to solid waste – a common problem faced by many nations including Sabah. "I am amazed that apart from effective recycling and recovery of metal, the system generates energy for its own power generation. "We also observed the process of several renewable energy in Akita such as biomass plant from oil palm kernels and chip woods, biogas power generation plant for food waste processing and wind mill plant. "Renewable energy from natural resources can be replenished during an average human lifetime and these sources should be promoted to ensure the earth's temperature will not increase at an alarming rate." During the visit, Assaffal also presented a speech on the performance of the climate change awareness programmes in Sabah at the International Eco­Products, Green Productivity and Environmental Technologies Exhibition (EcoPRo) 2018 in Tokyo. Source : Daily Express