The Penang Green Council and Water Watch Penang is conducting a public survey on climate change.

In a statement released by Penang Green Council general manager Thing Siew Shuen and president of Water Watch Penang Chan Ngai Weng, the duo warned that "Climate change is for real".

The survey aims to understand public perception and awareness on climate change, they said.

The survey, from Oct 1 to Nov 30, is conducted in collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia.

"It aims to understand Penangites’ views and awareness on climate change and related issues.

"The outcome of this project will be useful for developing Penang Green Agenda and local climate action plan to cope with climate change.

"Climate change has been known as one of the greatest environmental challenges, releasing of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has many disastrous impacts on the environment, " the statement added.

"This survey is to provide policy makers a better understanding of public perception and awareness of climate change issues.

"The survey will be an informative tool, providing accurate information and clues for developing strategies and public policies to make Penang a more sustainable and greener state, " the statement stressed.

Thing said the council has been tasked to develop a “Penang Green Agenda” by incorporating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to make Penang an environmentally sustainable state by 2030.

She added these includes defining and measuring the state’s sustainability, identifying the approaches to combat the current and future environmental challenges, and proposing measurable and feasible SDGs to achieve the state’s vision of a “cleaner, green, safer, healthier and happier Penang”.

"Two months ago, Dr David Carlson, Director of the World Climate Research Programme, said models of future warming had failed to predict the high temperatures recorded this year, suggesting they are under-estimating how hot the world will get.

" During the United Nation (UN) Summit 2015, world top leaders adopted 17 proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to call for actions by all countries to create a sustainable world, " she noted.

"The SDGs, consisting of 169 targets, aims to stimulate action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting the Earth to achieve sustainable development that meets the needs of the present and future generations by 2030," she said.