The federation of Malaysia, located in Southeast Asia, has a land area of 127,355 sq. mi. (329,847 sq. km.), with a population of 27,278,100 (2007 est.), and a population density of 213 people per sq. mi. (82 people per sq. km.). Three percent of Malaysia’s land is arable, and 58 percent is covered in forests, although there has been a rise in the rate of deforestation from the 1980s.
With a large increase in industrialization, and the enlarging of manufacturing industry, the demand for electricity in Malaysia has increased considerably since the 1970s, with 88 percent of its electricity coming from fossil fuels, and only 12 percent from hydropower. As a result, electricity contributes to 28 percent of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions, with 23 percent from manufacturing, and 28 percent from transportation. The latter figure comes from a high rate of private ownership of cars which, since the development of the Proton, has become more affordable for many people in the country, in spite of a relatively good system of public transport, mainly buses, covering much of the country. This has helped contribute to the fact that 54 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from liquid fuels, 30 percent from gaseous fuels, and 6 percent from gas flaring (Malaysia has its own petroleum and natural gas industries). Solid fuels account for only 6 percent of emissions, with cement manufacturing making up the remaining 4 percent.
EFFECT OF GLOBAL WARMING
Malaysia has been affected in a number of ways by global warming and climate change. Rising temperatures have resulted in the bleaching of coral reefs along Malaysia’s coasts, and have raised potential problems for marine life, especially fish and turtles (the latter nesting on some beaches in Terengganu, on Malaysia’s east coast). Penang, off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, was affected by the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami, and there has been increased risk of flooding in Sarawak and Sabah, leading to the possibility of a rise in insect-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.
The Mahathir government of Malaysia ratified the Vienna Convention in 1989, and took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992, which they ratified two years later. The Malaysian government signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on March 12, 1999, which was ratified on September 4, 2002, and took effect on February 16, 2005.
