KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Various initiatives have been taken by the government to ensure its target of reducing carbon emissions by 40 per cent based on Gross National Product (GNP) in the country by 2020, is met,” the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Seri James Dawos Mamit said the initiatives comprised three key thrusts, which were Energy Efficiency (EE), Renewable Energy (RE) and solid waste management.

He said the current status of the country’s carbon intensity reduction was at 33 per cent, as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the UN Climate Summit 2014 in New York, last September.

“To ensure continuous carbon capture and storage, the ministry has also implemented a campaign to plant an additional 26 million trees themed ‘Greening the Earth: One Citizen One Tree”, he said in response to Datuk Noraini Ahmad’s (BN — Parit Sulong) question, during the question-and-answer session.

He said till last August, 62.52 million trees had been planted on 79,379.61 hectares of land nationwide.

“At the same time, the nation’s forest cover has been maintained at 50 per cent of total land area. This is to ensure continuous carbon capture and storage,” he said.

Meanwhile, James said the MyCarbon, or the National Green House Gas Inventory programme, is a collaboration between the ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which reports on Green House Gasses released by corporate organisations and private companies.

He said the programme, which was launched on Dec 3 last year, received participation from 26 organisations from various sectors such as power generation, transport, telecommunication, manufacturing and processing industries, water treatment and services. — Bernama