KUALA LUMPUR: The government must accord serious attention to issues concerning natural resources, climate change and sustainability in the wake of frequent landslides and flood problem in Malaysia due to inclement weather and illegal land clearing activities.
Alliance for Safe Community chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said recent events such as the landslides in Cameron Highlands and severe flooding in several parts of the country had demonstrated a more urgent and compelling need for concerted efforts by all parties concerned to preserve and protect Malaysia's natural environment.
He further said as Malaysia focused on sustainable growth, it was essential for public and private sector companies to develop their environmental auditing systems and provide annual reports on the impact of their economic activities on the environment.
"Several states are placed on high alert for potential disasters such as landslides and floods due to the ongoing northeast monsoon season.
"This is the time for all relevant departments and agencies (at the federal, state and local levels) to step up precautionary measures to ensure public safety.
"If we are not going to make peace with our environment, the destruction will be all the more greater in the future," he said in a statement today.
Lee said installing more early-warning systems at high-risk areas in the country would not be the ultimate solution to the problem.
All sectors of the economy, he said should work towards ensuring that the economy and the environment could prosper together.
"We can and should demonstrate that sustainable development is not an indulgence but a precursor for success."
He further said environmental auditing should be an integral part of corporate management at a time when environmental concerns in the business sector were being given greater focus across the globe.
As the issue of climate change is gaining intensity, he said there was a need for businesses to be more conscious of environmental issues.
"Companies must realise there is more to gain by preserving the environment. Environmental governance must be prioritised by business organisations.
"Problems relating to illegal land clearing, deforestation and dumping of hazardous industrial waste by irresponsible companies or smoke emissions from factories have time and again been highlighted in the media.
"Unless those concerned are prepared to address these issues, they will not only have to bear the full brunt of the law, but eventually lose out as trade barriers fall in the global market."
He explained that environmental reporting was basically about the company's disclosure related to the impact of its economic activities on the environment.
The disclosure may provide vital information to the investors who need it to protect themselves from unexpected losses incurred due to the environmental costs which will prove detrimental to their investments, he said.
Lee said to the public, such disclosure would allow them to evaluate the social commitments undertaken by the corporate entity.
"As has been observed there is now an emerging trend among corporations, particularly at the international level, to disclose information on environment policies, objectives and programmes to the public.
"The fact that Malaysian companies need to improve their environmental accounting system is based on the realisation that this trend may well become an established corporate practice worldwide which governs investment decisions.
"Hopefully, the proposal on environmental accounting by companies will lead to a change in the mindset of top management of companies on environment issues."
Lee added that securing profits by a company should not be at the expense of the environment as it too had a social responsibility to inform their stakeholders of the impact its business had on the environment.
"Shareholders must also be conscious of the fact that money is not made at the expense of the environment and that companies should be more responsible for the future generation.
"Now is the time for all nations to work towards a World Sustainability Community. We must ensure future generations inherit a liveable world."