Kuala Teregganu—Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) has for the first time hosted the Malaysia launch of 2020 report of Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. The three–hour event was both held at UMT Sultan Mizan Hall and online via Webex.

Established in 2015 by the Lancet Commission, the yearly held Lancet Countdown event is a multidisciplinary international collaboration to monitor global health and climate change and provide assessment on the commitment by leaders around the world based on the Paris Agreement.

The Lancet Countdown report is prepared yearly by 120 world experts from 38 academic institutions and United Nation’s agencies, and it explains the various ways climate change may affect our health.

In attendance was Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad, Minister of Malaysian Higher Education; Dr Nagulendran Kangayatkarasu, Deputy Secretary General (Environmental Management); Professor Dato’ Dr Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar, UMT Vice Chancellor; Yang Amat Mulia Tengku Datin Paduka Setia Zatashah binti Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, Malaysian environmental activist; and Professor Dr Elizabeth Robinson, board member of the United Kingdom Lancet Countdown.

In her speech, Datuk Seri Dr Noraini said that climate change and worsening health effect have been among the main challenges in Malaysia for a few decades, and these must be addressed more seriously.   

The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) always encourages universities to conduct research and transfer the knowledge to students and communities to enable them to contribute towards protecting the environment and public health.

University students are agents of change who play an important role in ensuring the country’s sustainable development, she said.

She believed that the event would spark innovative thinking and useful ideas for progressing further, and acknowledge the effort of Lancet to campaign, conduct intellectual discourses, and promote greater awareness of health and climate change, as well as food security of the world.

Professor Elicabeth Robinson was the main speaker for the event. She is an environmental economist from the University of Reading, EduCity, Iskandar.

According to Professor Robinson, evidence showed that Malaysia and other South East Asian countries, as well as countries in the region with similar climate challenge are more likely to experience a rise in death caused by global warming.

Malaysia is already feeling the climate change effect with the rise in sea level and warmer waters that endanger coral reefs and threaten food safety near the coastal area.

“The weather that includes heavy rain and longer, stronger heat waves have directly affected the health of Malaysians,” she said.

Meanwhile, UMT Vice Chancellor Professor Dato’ Dr Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar said that the key indicator for monitoring the effect of climate change towards health is food security.

“UMT is directly involved in research and development on future food as part of the effort to ensure future food security of the country,” she said.

The Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP) is putting its best effort to produce aquaculture products as food source of the future.

“Praise Be to God, Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has acknowledged AKUATROP as a higher institution centre of excellence that is developing oyster aquaculture,” she said.

She also said that the university is supporting the National Food Security Policy through its national and international partnerships on developing oyster research laboratory with China, mud crab hatching centre, saltwater shrimp rearing centre, and green aquaculture farming system.

“I believe that with the expertise of researchers at the Faculty of Fisheries and Food Sciences and cooperation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, UMT will be able to establish an aquatic resource management centre of excellence to maintain economic sustainability,” she said.

UMT researcher Associate Professor Dr Meisam Tabatabaei has made UMT proud through his work with Lancet Countdown as the main collaborator in the effort to contribute towards research on health and climate change. He has published for the first time in the prestigious journal The Lancet. Another UMT researcher Associate Professor Dr Lam Su Shiung has also published his article in The Lancet.

UMT is strongly committed to working with Lancet Countdown to create effective strategies that will overcome the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, Professor Nor Aieni said.

The event gathered more than 2000 people from 30 countries including Malaysia, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Taiwan, Brunei, Singapore, Denmark, Ireland, UK, UAE, India, and Korea.

For further information, please contact:

Assoc. Prof. Dr Meisam Tabatabaei
Lencet Secretariat
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT)
Tel: 09-6683465
Email: meisam.tabatabae@umt.edu.my

Published by:

Corporate Communication Centre
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu