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Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand

establishment  of  an  Asian  Low  Carbon  Society network.  The  Project  consisted  of  5  research  groups,  namely:  (1)  Scenario  Integration  and  Land  Use  Planning,  (2)  Consensus  Building  and  Education,  (3)  Energy  System,  (4)  Solid  Waste  management  and  (5)  Air  Quality  and  Transport. “Low  Carbon  Society  Blueprint  for  Iskandar  Malaysia  2025”  is  a  written  document that  represents  comprehensive  climate  change  mitigation  policies  and  detailed  strategies  to  guide  the  development  of  Iskandar  Malaysia  towards  “Strong  and  Sustainable  Metropolis  of  International  Standing”.  The  document  is  the  product  of  ‘science-policy’  partnership,  the  partnership  among  afore  mentioned  Japanese  research  institutes,  UTM  and  IRDA.  The  overall  process  began  with  the  information  gathering,  analysis  and  contextual  appraisal  of  current  development,  carbon  emission  and  policy  scenarios  in  IM.  This  allowed  the  setting  of  IM’s  LCS  goals  and  carbon  emission reduction  target  in  2025.  Stakeholder  participation  in  the  preparation  of  the  document  was  a  major  activity  through  a  series  of  Focus  Group  Discussions  (FGD)  and  workshops  where  proposed  actions,  measures  and  programs  were  scrutinized  and  stakeholders’  opinions  were  collected  and  fed  back  into  the  policy  formulation  process.  The  blueprint  incorporates  various  related  national  policies,  and  the  other  24  Iskandar  Malaysia  Blueprints  and  Comprehensive Development  Plan  (CDP  1  &  CDPii  5)  in  transforming  IM  into  a  low  carbon  metropolis.  The  blueprint  discusses  and  provides  complex  technical  details  of  carbon  mitigation  options  with  specific  measures  and  programmes.  It  is  aimed  to  guide  the  implementation  of  12  low  carbon  society  policy  actions  in  Iskandar  Malaysia  through  281  programs  that  would  bring  a  reduction  of  58%  of  GHG  emission  intensity  and  a  40%  emission  reduction  from  2025  BaU  (business  as  usual)  compared  with  2005  as  base  year.  Specifically  for  the  low  carbon  education  component,  the  Consensus  Building  and  Education  group  was  responsible  in  drafting  Action  6  (Low  Carbon  Lifestyle)  and  Action  7  (Consensus  Building  &  Community  Engagement)  of  the  blueprint.  LCS  Education  is  a  measure  under  Action  6.  The  researchers  first  engaged  with  an  officer  from  the  Johor  State  Education  Department  (JPNJ)  to  bring  the  idea  of  low  carbon  education  into  schools  in  2011.  JPNJ  was  very  keen  to  bring  the  new  idea  into  schools.  As  a  result,  a  focus  group  discussion  was  conducted  among  33  selected  principals  and  headmasters  from  the  secondary  and  primary  schools  in  the  region  of  IM.  They  were  introduced  to  the  idea  of  LCS  and  were  asked  to  share  what  measures  that  schools  have  taken  and  are  willing  to  commit  if  LCS  is  to  be  implemented  in  schools  in  IM.  The  details  of  all  the  measures  can  be  found  in  6.  In  September  2012,  a  group  of  researchers  from  UTM,  JPNJ  and  IRDA  visited  Tokyo  and  Kyoto  to  learn  about  LCS  good  practices  under  a  technical  tour  of  the  research  project.  In  this  visit,  engagement  with  the  Ministry  of  Environment  and  education  boards  took  place  to  enable  Malaysian  delegates  to  learn  how  policy  impacts  the  environmental  education  in  Japan.  Visits  to  some  selected  secondary  schools,  primary  schools,  nursery,  ecology  centers  and  non-profit  organization  (NPO)  provided  some  ideas  of  the  best  practices  that  can  be  carried  out  in  IM.  The  practices  were  studied  and  at  the  end  a  few  measures  were  introduced  to  the  IM’s  blueprint. III.  POLICY  INTO  ACTION Following  the  global  launching  of  the  blueprint  at  COP18  Doha  in  November  2012,  the  Environment  Division  in  IRDA,  tasked  with  the  strategic  environmental  planning  and  management  of  IM,  focused  on  the  Proceedings  of  the  International  Conference  on  Climate  Change,  Biodiversity  and  Ecosystem  Services  for  the 331 Sustainable  Development  Goals  (SDGs):  Policy  and  Practice  27-29  June  2016,  Cha-am,  Phetchaburi,  Thailand


Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
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