KUALA LUMPUR: Climate change heated up the Dewan Rakyat today when Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar scolded an Opposition lawmaker for being ‘stupid’.
Wan Junaidi was replying to a question by Thomas Su (DAP - Ipoh Timur) who had asked on the long term plans to address the problems of climate change and whether the government has any plans to make Malaysia a zero-carbon nation by 2030.
Wan Junaidi said Malaysia had submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in November last year for the Paris climate deal.
The contribution represents targets and actions for the post-2020 period.
"Under the climate action plan, Malaysia intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) by 45 per cent before the year 2030.
“The commitment is 35 per cent on unconditional basis with a further 10 per cent conditional upon climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building.
“This will be achieved through reductions from the energy, agriculture and the land use change and forestry sectors” he said.
Su then replied that Malaysia should strive to be a zero-carbon country, and criticised the government for not making the effort despite signing an international agreement to reduce carbon emission.
This prompted Wan Junaidi to berate the latter, telling Su to 'shut up’ and ‘listen to what I say’.
He also blasted Su as a person who "opens the window every morning and sees bad things.”
Wan Junaidi added: "If you don't understand the terms, don’t use it.”
He said Malaysia will not try to be a zero-carbon nation as only two countries, Bhutan and Vatican City, can achieve it.
The Santubong MP explained that Malaysia is instead moving towards carbon neutrality by offsetting carbon release.
Su, who was livid at the scolding, denied that he was confused by the different terminologies.