Event Report: “ Green Technologies to Combat Climate Change: Is Earth in Trouble?”

The IEM Young Engineers Section (IEM G&S YES) organized a talk on “ Green Technologies to Combat Climate Change: Is Earth in Trouble?” at the Tan Sri Ir. Prof. Chin Fung Kee Auditorium, Wisma IEM on 21 July 2011. The talk was conducted by Engr. Kee Wai Fun, Industry Manager of Technical Insights, Frost & Sullivan, which provides new technical intelligence, including emerging technologies, patent information, R&D breakthroughs, and forecasting and impact analysis, along with the contact information of the companies driving those technologies.
Engr. Kee began her talk with an introduction of Climate Change by highlighting the facts
• Fact 1: Current CO2 emissions in the atmosphere are reaching concentrations of 393 ppm (parts per million), the highest it’s been for the last 800,000 years.
• Fact 2: Earth’s climate has changed radically in recent years, with the last decade (2001 to 2010) having some of the hottest years on record.
She then continued her introduction by explaining the components of the climate system, The Greenhouse Effect. She also presented the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that concluded the facts of warming in the climate system is unequivocal and continued GHG emissions would induce many changes that would very likely be larger than those observed.
Engr. Kee shown the Graph of Global Mean Sea Level Variations and and Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases over the year which indicating both had risen dramatically in the recent years. This would be induce a great impact on water resource, ecosystems, food, coast and health because of the increasing of temperature.

After showing all the facts and impact of the Climate Changes, Engr. Kee further illustrated the Key Technologies for Reducing CO2 Emissions and described the potential for Renewable energy in Southeast Asia where also shown that Malaysia had the potential of having Wind offshore and onshore, Photovoltaic, Hydro, Solid Biomass and Biogas. She highlighted that Malaysia was rated as Medium in Target and Policy Support for Renewable Energy in Southeast Asia and Asia Green City Index 2011.

Engr. Kee then presented the solution to combat the climate change. She highlighted that in the world of 2020, the word “Green” will need to be replaced with “Smart” i.e. Green Technology to Smart Technology, Green Building to Smart building.
The talk concluded with an actively participated ‘Question and Answer’ session and the the presentation of IEM’s certificate and token of appreciation to Engr. Kee Wai Fun.

Prepared by Engr. Lee Cheng Pay
Posted by Engr. Mei Wong