Renewable Energy – Is It Really Just A Resource Shift?

Synopsis: In this case study, YSEALI Academic Fellow, Vennessa Kuek presents the challenges faced in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, as well as the complexities of other socio-economic traits woven into the energy system.

What’s Going On?

Based on the combined data from independent experts and the bp Statistical Review of World Energy, in the past 40 years, the known reserves of oil and natural gas have not been depleted – rather, they have more than doubled as technology improved. The argument that we must switch to renewable energy is not based on the fact that we are running out of oil and natural gas, but rather, that continuing to extract them is starting to come with a price too heavy to pay. In Malaysia, petroleum, natural gas and coal meet 93% of the country’s total consumption as of 2021. Often, members of the public rely on these sources of energy as other sources have been seen as unaffordable and inaccessible, a small insight to the depth of power imbalances woven into the current fossil-fuel based structure. However, with many companies and investors now taking ESG ratings into consideration, more projects based on renewable energy have been emerging, and the public consensus has shifted to be more favorable.

In the working world, more and more workers are considering a career in ESG and environment-based pathways, compared with the dominant choices of school teacher, doctor, lawyer, engineer, and accountant in the past. As coined by Deloitte , “green collars” have emerged in the workforce, with green talent rising by 38.5% from 2015 to 2021. In Malaysia, green jobs are on the rise, with newer and shinier job titles such as environmental and biodiversity consultants, photovoltaic solar engineers and corporate sustainability roles gaining popularity on LinkedIn. Of course, green jobs have always existed in Malaysia. As defined by the International Labour Organisation, green jobs refer to decent jobs in any economic sector which contribute to preserving, restoring and enhancing environmental quality – but remain at around 8 to 10%, much lower relative to the numbers of the industry and services sector of 39.1 and 50.3% respectively). These numbers become more blurred as we consider the transition of oil and gas giants locally becoming energy companies, hence the number of green jobs growing is difficult to project.

Recently, many of the main energy and real estate developers have directed some of their resources into building renewable energy grids, drawing energy from mostly solar farms and wind turbines as the more reliable forms of renewable energy. During the 18th century, it was common for communities and families to work in their own homes as a decentralized form of employment, which leads to a point of argument that often arises in terms of renewable energy – should renewable energy grids be centralized for better regulations and profit, or would a decentralized form prove to be more sustainable and resilient? Historically, the dominance of fossil fuels have been characterized by a very centralized system, controlled by very few stakeholders. The gaps in this structure have started to show as devastating energy crashes cause havoc in communities worldwide, such as the 2021 power crisis in Texas that swept in during winter – would the community have suffered less with more independent grids to tap on and share with amongst them? The question of how power should be distributed in the near-future of renewable and sustainable energy remains unanswered, but we know that diversity and transparency in governance is absolutely necessary to a sustainable power source that prioritizes the well-being of the people. Communities in the outskirts, particularly, will be vulnerable to the power-imbalance that often occurs in the distribution of resources when it is scarce.

In the past, the development and growth of our economies for the well-being of the masses was prioritized over the wellbeing of individuals and small communities. After all, the cultural traditions and living methods of a small town were likely considered a worthwhile trade for immense development and the overall improvement of a country. However, this top-down perspective puts many factors out of consideration – such as, did the community require this “upgrade” in the first place? How could it be catered to them in a way that preserved their values? Could it be implemented in a way that the ways of the community could be mutually beneficial for all parties involved? Lack of questioning in a collaborative manner during major decision-making processes has always caused vulnerable communities to become more so, become detached or wiped out altogether. Communities that are not centrally located, politically represented, indigenous and have a reliance on older methods of production are particularly exposed to the problems of power-imbalance in the energy industry.

What Has Malaysia Been Doing to Facilitate the Renewable Energy Transition?

With enough pushing from stakeholder demands for clean energy, we have started to see renewable energy become more mainstream, becoming key parts of businesses, or at the very least becoming part of their growing investments. In communities, the growth is slowly but surely seeping in as well. An interesting perspective on considering the increased adaptation in decentralized communities is how much they really needed to adapt in the first place. In indigenous tribes, less energy is needed as they tend to form living habitats that optimize the natural resources they already have, such as the way they obtain water for agricultural and cultivation purposes, utilizing water movement for minor electrical appliances and taking weather patterns into consideration in planning community events. Despite the general increased accessibility to energy and technology, how much a community is willing to partake in the energy system really depends on how resilient they are independently without access to these energy resources, as well as how open they are to involving newer technologies in their ways of living.

Another key matter in renewable energy (and all matters considered in creating a better world) is transparency. Compared to technical knowledge on other environmental matters, such as forestry laws, biodiversity surveys, environmental impact assessments and the like, renewable energy tends to be a much more widely understood topic due to its relevance to all walks of life. This means that transparency and nuance in policy-making is key to ensuring a smooth transition. Very often, this means that the types of questions that need to be answered through energy policies look a bit like this:

What communities will likely oppose having renewable energy be their main source of power? Does the entry of renewable energy affect the fertility of their land, the long-standing traditions of the community, or is it due to factors such as low awareness and existing misconceptions?

How will decentralized energy grids be regulated? Will they be an encouraged aspect of a resilient energy provision structure, or taken down as a small competitor in the largely monopolized energy market in Malaysia?

How can we ensure the livelihoods of those currently working in the fossil fuels industry?

Internationally, the Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. With this agreement having been adopted for almost 9 years now since 2015, the gap between the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the current policy trajectory and the baseline is still concerning. In other words… We are very much behind, despite the celebrated statistics that carbon emissions have slowed down over the recent years. Additionally, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) was established to provide technical assistance, capacity building, and knowledge sharing to member countries to support the transition to renewable energy. The Malaysia Energy Transition Outlook published in 2023 by IRENA, available here, states that we are “uniquely positioned to develop a sustainable energy system based on renewable energy that can support economic development, address climate change, and achieve energy security, universalisation and affordability goals.” – a national goal that we are still trying to achieve.

Regionally, the ASEAN Renewable Energy Policy and the EU Renewable Energy Directive have been key references in promoting renewable energy adoption and cooperation regionally. Meanwhile in Malaysia, the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) has launched multiple programmes to facilitate the transition to renewables. This includes SELCO (where households are allowed to generate electricity for their own use), net energy metering and large scale solar farms under their solar photovoltaic arm. Other forms of renewable energy, including solar photovoltaics, includes biogas, biomass and small hydro farms that are parked with the Feed-in Tariff programme – which allows electricity produced from indigenous renewable resources to be sold to Distribution Licensees at a fixed premium price for a specific duration, which shows that the abilities of the indigenous tribes in Malaysia have been considered, allowing them to utilize this transition for additional income for their communities. Generally speaking, the energy sector is still dominated by higher organizations and the local government as it is a highly protected and centralized form of resource in Malaysia. Comparatively, the role of NGOs is less prominent, with most NGOs more focused on the conservation and advocacy of indigenous rights in the environmental field. Citizens, in the midst of this transition, have been seen taking anywhere from no action at all, to taking the initiative of changing career fields or even installing solar panels for their homes.

In the corporate environment in Malaysia, it has been identified by multiple independent consultants that we lack enough green talent to fulfill the growing demand of the market, which explains the motivations of many in pivoting to a green job. Programmes with the aim of growing this type of talent have sprouted up in the past few years, with the aim of empowering people to pursue careers in corporate sustainability and carbon accounting, as well as increasing the popularity of environment-based degrees in tertiary education nationally. This is supportive of the transition to a less fossil-fueled based economy, and increasing amounts of grants and programmes have been pushed forward by organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) towards more technical and biological based aspects of environmental sustainability and conservation. Additionally, our methods of analysis have evolved – in the last decade, top-down integrated assessment models (IAMs) would have been the basis for our calculations of carbon emissions across different sectors. In recent years, reports and proposals have grown to include systemic, bottom-up reviews that have shown to provide greater mitigation potential due to greater consideration of socio-economic factors that affect the people in these sectors. Grassroot programmes such as Women Can Lead empower girls to consider careers in environmentalism, to have increased awareness of their potential roles in society outside of the traditional feminine norms and be an innovative solution in reducing emissions and slowing population growth. Other programmes focused on nature-based learning, channeling funding to conservation, creating safe spaces for environmental concerns to be aired – all play a part in our weaving of a new system where our people and their wellbeing come first.

Where Does an Ecology Student Fit? 

In the eyes of Vennessa, an Ecology and Biodiversity student from University Malaya, that means paving her pathway in a way that makes sense to her – and treating her journey as a living example for others. Her journey started in a Diploma in Forestry, where she had the opportunity to stretch her time as a lab research assistant in biotechnology mass production, an intern at Bako National Park, Sarawak, and her roles in ProjectEd . Her experiences that stretched across different sectors of environmentalism were initially thought to be simply based on interest, but she has since found her methods extremely helpful in building her perspective on sustainability as a whole. 

She believes that for environmental advocacy and systems to be practical, both scientific knowledge of environmentalism and understanding of current systems are needed. That also translates into her taking a minor in Civil Engineering to better understand the production flow and thought processes behind one of the biggest contributing sectors to carbon emissions. She is also an active volunteer and guide at Rimba Ilmu, the University Malaya conservatory, collaborating with industry professionals and academicians in data collection through biodiversity surveys for conservation. Additionally, she contributes her talents in public speaking, public relations management, business acumen and storytelling across a wide range of events and competitions, in many different roles such as focus group rapporteur, event manager, emcee, student representative in national conferences, case study participant and much more where she believes that she gets to learn as much as she gets to contribute. 

In the larger scheme of things, the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy is much more than just converting to renewable energy. Rather, it is a large-scale mindset shift – from profit-first, to people-first. Vennessa believes that the stories of people in environmentalism are key to increased youth participation in becoming the green talent of Malaysia – an often forgotten aspect when considering the shift to a renewable energy based social structure are the emotional qualms of accepting something new . She remembers the obstacles that she faced when choosing to go down the pathway of a green career, and believes that dialogues that cover what different career pathways in environmentalism can look like is key in encouraging youth to take the leap into environmentalism. 

Vennessa’s journey is led by her basic compass of putting people first and data-based decision making. She strongly believes that when we put people first, we solve many problems along the way – such is the emission issue at hand. She continues to be proactive in gaining knowledge across production industries and volunteer groups, as she believes that you cannot provide strong solutions without first understanding what the perspectives of different communities really sound like on the field. The world takes all types of people to work, and she believes that a community built on that belief is what creates resilience and sustainability.