By Zareef Muzammil
SHAH ALAM, Jan 24 — A special committee will soon be formed to address the issues related to climate change in Selangor, says Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.
The Menteri Besar said the committee would be headed by state executive councillor for environment Hee Loy Sian, who will be responsible for projecting and formulating strategies to prepare for future disasters.
“I have raised the matter in the previous State Executive Councillor Meeting. In a week or two, we will form the committee.
“Hee will call academics and environmental NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to help in preparing for any possible circumstances,” Amirudin told the press when met at the Selangor State Secretariat building here today.
He said that the committee would also scrutinise the other side effects, such as food pricing and the comfort of people’s lives.
“We will start by preventing the impact of climate change and global warming, including reducing carbon footprint, environmentally friendly development and green conservation,” he said.
Earlier, Amirudin said the committee would be formed under the Selangor Department of Environment (JAS).
He said the recent devastating floods that had hit the state last year resulted from climate change and global warming and requires immediate attention to prepare for any circumstances in the future.
“As a responsive administration, we have to look into and tackle global warming and climate change. After what we had recently faced, this is an important lesson. And this is not a new warning sign… there had been several previous incidents of landslides and thunderstorms.
“Climate change and global warming does not only implicate in the sense of landslides and floods, but it will also have an impact on various other aspects, such as food security,” said Amirudin.
While delivering his New Year’s message, Amirduin said that the state administration would also form an institution dubbed as Selangor Implementation and Performance Monitoring Unit (Siap), which will oversee the integrity, achievement, implementation of the programmes and projects introduced by the state government.
He said this would ensure that the mental and physical preparedness of the Selangor government and its agencies from top to bottom would be able to cushion the impact of the challenges bound to take place in 2022.
On December 17, 2021, continuous heavy rain for two days had caused unprecedented floods that hit eight districts in Selangor, which threw the lives of 47,000 people in the state into disarray. The incident had also claimed 25 lives by the time the waters subsided.
