JUNE 5 was World Environment Day. It is a day to remind us of the urgent need to care for the fragile environment that we inherit.
Judging by what has happened in recent decades, few would disagree that the environment is in poor shape.
It has been badly ravaged, unfortunately, by our very own doing. In the name of development, we have bulldozed through many projects, some even to the detriment of the environment.
As a result, environmental pollution is on the rise. Many rivers have been contaminated by industrial waste, depriving us of clean water. The quality of air has significantly deteriorated in some places, posing serious health hazards.
Large tracts of arable land to grow food have become less productive due to overuse or neglect. Now that we have reached a state of hopelessness, we debate how best to revive the environment.
The United Nations has initiated many programmes to arrest the decline in global environmental health. We have the UN Sustainable Development Goals to drive world efforts to embrace sustainability.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is established to galvanise global actions to tackle climate change, a phenomenon that poses significant threats to world sustainability.
Here, at home, we have adopted roadmaps and blueprints on the environment to guide us. In fact. our five-year developmental plans pay close attention to environmental challenges.
The 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) focuses on biomass as a possible economic resource.
In a quest for clean energy, 12MP has identified hydrogen as an energy source to invest in. For that matter, many countries have started embracing the much-touted hydrogen economy.
Though environmental well-being is an important agenda for the world, there is doubt that everyone demonstrates full commitment to the UN initiatives.
Take ocean plastics pollution, for example. Despite all the evidence of waste plastics destroying ocean life, there is no let-up in the indiscriminate disposal of plastics.
The call to separate plastics at source for recycling has fallen on deaf ears. Changing behaviour remains a major challenge as we saw in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic.
So much for the commitment of the people to tackling environmental woes. Countries are also not fully committed to the cause as evidenced by the widespread flouting of pledges to reduce carbon emissions.
In fact, some countries use the environmental argument to deny market access. An example is the policy to deny palm biodiesel access to the European Union market, which goes against the spirit of engagement and collaboration.
The good news is that more people now recognise the environment and nature in general as a strategic capital for the world economy.
Dubbed natural capitalism, countries recognise the fact that the environment should be accorded similar, if not better, treatment than the traditional growth capitals of land, labour, finance and technology.
Like other assets, the natural capital requires replenishing to stay robust.
More and more businesses are embracing the environmental, social and corporate governance monitoring and reporting mandate, reflecting their increased commitment to the environment.
This is important since the business sector is known to have impacted the environment the most.
The issue of the environment has indeed united the world in some ways. Many countries have come together to fight the hazards of climate change, the biggest environmental threat of all.
Many are taking steps to reduce carbon emissions.
However, the world is divided on the best way to achieve that. Some die-hard environmentalists call for a total boycott of fossil fuel. Fossil fuel-dependent businesses, meanwhile, will not budge from their position.
The only way out of the fracas is to strive for a balance between (carbon) emission and capture. Hopefully net zero will unite the world in this environmental cause.
The writer is a professor at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy, UCSI University