Climate change: National adaptation plan to be formulated

The government is formulating a national adaptation plan to address existing and future vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change.

According to the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) Mid-Term Review (MTR) released by the Economy Ministry today, the plan will consist of adaptation measures in five priority areas. This will involve public health, agriculture and food security, forestry and biodiversity, water resources and security, infrastructure, and cities.

“These measures will bolster adaptive capacities in the priority areas and strengthen climate-resilient society. The national adaptation plan will incorporate strategies to manage heat-related impacts, such as heat stress, heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

“Among the initiatives to be implemented include increasing green spaces and tree coverage, improving urban planning to reduce urban heat island effect as well as evaluating all activities in managing heat-related impacts,” the MTR noted.

Formulating a national adaptation plan is under ‘Increasing Resilience Against Climate Change and Disaster’, the 4th strategy under the ‘Accelerating the Implementation of Low Carbon, Clean and Resilient Development’ focus area in the 12MP.

According to the MTR, the national adaptation plan would also cover heat action plans and early warning systems to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities.

Nature-based solutions

In strengthening flood management, mitigation programmes will be emphasised to cover more flood-prone areas.

It will involve a study to assess the effectiveness of nature-based solutions. This will be conducted to identify alternatives to the structural-based approach as well as alternative and sustainable financing will be explored for the purposes.

The MTR further noted that the government’s disaster management will also be strengthened.

This will see an assessment of disaster impact on affected groups conducted with the additional development and sharing of flood and slope hazard maps will be continued to cover more critical areas.

“In this regard, a landslide early warning system for federal roads will be developed to improve disaster management. Meanwhile, a national geological disaster centre will be established by expanding the roles of the existing institution.

“Strategies to enhance community preparedness will also be developed to complement the national disaster risk reduction. Additionally, the capacity of the community response team will be enhanced to assist in the post-recovery process,” it said.

- Bernama

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