Dear Minister

Dear Minister We are writing to you to express our concern about climate change. On paper, Malaysia has one of the best sets of environment-related policies and plans, which are as good as some of those of developed countries. First, we have the National Environmental Policy, which we adopted in 1992, that strives to promote development through environmentally sound and sustainable development. Next, there is the National Energy Policy that endeavours to minimise the negative impacts of energy production and consumption on the environment; the National Forest Policy that seeks to safeguard our forests – our indispensable carbon sinks; the Biodiversity Policy that aims to conserve our country’s rich biodiversity; and many many more. However, policies and plans are only as good as their execution. We appeal to you to step up your effort in combating climate change, particularly through enforcing existing policies as well as pro-actively  promote the use of renewable energy (without the loss of biodiversity) as an alternative fuel and as a catalyst for development;  improve the public transportation system;  recycled solid waste, which is also an important contributor to greenhouse gases emissions;  develop low-carbon-emission technologies for stimulating economic growth and creating green jobs;  promote greater use of environmentally-sound technologies and environmentallyfriendly materials; and  conduct more research and development (R&D) at the local level to assist decisions at the policy level and to ensure effective implementation at the execution level. In addition, we urge the government to swiftly consolidate all the existing climate-related policies into a bold and just National Climate Policy, followed by an action plan, so that our country can be more focused in its efforts in tackling climate change. The costs of your inaction will fall upon your children, it will fall upon us. This is our future – please act now! Yours sincerely Malaysian Youth Climate Justice Network www.mycjn.org