Introduction
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES [SUDI]
a THINK TANK of
the Centre for Environment, Technology & Development, Malaysia (CETDEM)
There is no independent ‘think tank’ in Malaysia that focuses specifically on sustainable development issues. The ongoing global environmental crisis would affect all aspects of our lives and meeting these challenges will determine our future in ways that we can hardly imagine. Climate change will affect our food security as agriculture becomes more vulnerable to more severe floods and droughts and crop failures become more common. Together with the rising cost of petroleum as a result of scarcity of this crucial resource for industrial scale agriculture, food security is a very real threat in the coming years.
There is a huge information gap as the stakeholders, such as the government, corporations and the public, grapple to know the real environmental impact and ramifications of (say) rising energy prices on climate change, the long-term impact of the country’s high dependence on fossil fuels in the transport sector, just to name a few.
Objectives
- To facilitate the success of a comprehensive green development policy.
- Provide government, energy-related companies, media, and other stakeholders an independent assessment of the energy & sustainable development-related issues, challenges and how the problems can be addressed.
- Promote the use of genuine green technology as one of the ways to make the transition to sustainable industrial development
- Provide an alternative/independent view of the issues/concerns of the day
- Act as an independent monitoring and assessment vehicle of government programmes and projects of public interest
- Ensure that sustainable development-related information will be accessible to a wider spectrum of people and organizations
- Promote private sector partnership
- Provide fora for inter-sectoral and multi- stakeholder dialogues
- Strengthen the information and data base in CETDEM with a view to sharing them with other stakeholders
- Promote regional partnerships with like-minded organizations
- Serve as an effective forum to discuss sustainable development issues
Focus Areas
The following are the areas SUDI can assist in achieving sustainability:
- Low-carbon development options
- A more concerted and strategic approach to Green Technologies
- Intensify Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Efforts especially in the industrial and transport sectors
- Sustainable energy paths in the transport sector
- Reduce the adverse environmental impacts of development
- Increase natural resource productivity as a means of combating natural resource depletion
- Ensure that Malaysia makes the transition to sustainable development with the minimal ecological and human costs
The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by United Nations General Assembly
Access to government information and documents is proving very difficult because of the confidential nature of the information and data. In short, important sustainable development-related information and data are not available in the public domain. CETDEM seeks to address this gap by the setting up of SUDI that would serve the interests of the various stakeholders, including the private sector.
HISTORY
SUDI was launched on 1 April 2011 in PJ and initiated its first its study on LOW CARBON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS FOR MALAYSIA on 1 Sept, The report of this study was launched under the title LOWERING THE HEAT on 14 June 2012. From June 2013, it undertook a study ECOTRANSFORMATION: CHALLENGES OF ENTRENCHING SUSTAINABILITY IN EXISTING MALAYSIAN TOWNS. its report was launched in May 2014 under the title ELUSIVE URBAN SUSTAINABILITY. Its third study on WATER IN MALAYSIA: THE HOLISTIC SUSTAINABLE PATH was conducted in 2018. ts report titled TOWARDS WATER SUSTAINABILITY was published that December.. Its 4th study on MOBILISING SDGs TO ENSURE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MALAYSIA'S RESOURCES began in March 2019 and the report entitled. SDGs & MALAYSIAM RESOURCES SUSTAINABILITY was published in Aug. that year.
