Environmental Issues in Malaysia: Suggestion to Impose Carbon Tax

Abstract

Malaysia has a long history of environmental issues. The Malaysian government has implemented deterrent and supportive strategies to reduce the issue by penalising polluters and providing tax incentives to encourage green technology developments. However, these strategies are ineffective since the number of pollution issues keeps increasing, and the Malaysia Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2020 score has dropped. Many countries have implemented carbon tax to mitigate some environmental issues following the recommendation by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The carbon tax has proven to be an effective strategy not only to reduce environmental problems but also to increase government revenues. This conceptual paper aims to give a brief review of literature for future studies in implementing a carbon tax policy in Malaysia. It is hoped that the findings will assist the Malaysian government in implementing a carbon tax policy to reduce environmental issues and as a strategy to widen its tax base Keywords: environmental issues, carbon tax, Malaysia, pollutions, income tax base

Optimizing Generation Maintenance Scheduling Considering Emission Factors

“…However, improper GMS has the following issues: (i) When a GU that has low operation costs and a high generation capacity is maintained during high-demand periods, a generation company (GenCo) will incur additional costs due to the need to have the capacity for backup generation or the need to purchase electricity from other sources to support the customer, which could result in higher financial expenditures and lower profits for the GenCo; (ii) When a GU that has a high failure rate (FR) is not optimally closed, the generation capacity may be lower than the load demand, caused by an unexpected outage of the GU, leading to high outage costs for the GenCo; (iii) If GMS problems are based solely on the optimization of financial costs, GMS plans may prioritize GUs with lower operational costs without focusing on the high emission generation coefficients, leading to higher overall emissions, despite the cost savings achieved. The environmental impact of GMS can be a significant concern if aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…Furthermore, the DRP has not been adapted when the emission costs are defined as an objective function, and factors such as emission generation, the PnF, and the ANRV have not been demonstrated to support the decision making of GenCos, simultaneously. These gaps could have implications for the results of the GMS problem due to the following reasons: (i) There is a global concern for environmental aspects, and one solution for this would be the implementation of carbon taxation policies [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] that are enforced by governments, which would directly impact the expenditure of GenCos. The existing GMS models do not consider emission costs or operation and maintenance costs simultaneously.…”