Let's keep Mother Earth safe
The Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS) of Kampar Campus organised a live talk on “Linking the Economic and the environment: Let’s Keep Mother Earth Safe!” on 26 March 2021 via Microsoft Teams. The live talk recorded a total of 89 participants. The live talk was presented by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Faculty of Management and Business Senior Lecturer Dr Nur Fatihah Shaari. The live talk was moderated by CFS Kampar Campus lecturer Dr Tan Chi Hau.
Dr Fatihah giving her welcome remarks
The live talk was organised across three outlines. Through this live talk, the participants understood the economy-environment interactions, the definition of carbon offsets and how carbon offsets work towards keeping Mother Earth safe.
Introducing the economy-environment interactions, Dr Fatihah said, “The links between the economy and the environment are manifold; the environment provides resources to the economy and acts as a sink for emissions and waste. Natural resources are essential inputs for production in many sectors, while production and consumption also lead to pollution and other environmental pressures. In turn, poor environmental quality affects economic growth and well-being by lowering the quantity and quality of resources or due to health impacts, etc.”
Dr Fatihah sharing the economy-environment interaction
Dr Fatihah continued her talk by sharing the definition of carbon offsets and the methods used by economists in the airline industry to have a better environmental performance. According to Dr Fatihah, carbon offset is the process of trying to reduce the damage caused by releasing carbon dioxide into the environment by doing other things that remove carbon dioxide, for example, by planting trees. She emphasised that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have become the hottest issue in the transportation sector. The air transport sector contributes approximately four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft is one of the issues taken seriously by the transportation sector. However, air transportation has implemented several ways to reduce carbon emissions, and one of them is by launching a carbon offset programme. Using a double-bounded dichotomous choice of contingent valuation method (CVM) estimates how much air passengers would be willing to pay to offset carbon emissions generated by their travel. She suggested that the additional fee for airline tickets of RM86 can be charged as a part of carbon offsetting to have a better environmental performance.
Dr Fatihah explaining how carbon offsetting works
Dr Fatihah explaining environmental economics valuation methods
The interactive live talk ended with an insightful Q&A session.