Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) under the Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies (FSPPP) was honoured to have Dr Suziannah Nhazzla Ismail from the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN) deliver a talk to postgraduate students titled, ‘ASEAN’s effort in combating environmental issues: Efforts and Challenges”. Her deep interest in environmental ethics and animal politics is evident through her efforts in educating the nation by publishing numerous articles in mainstream newspapers in Malaysia, namely BERNAMA, The Star, The Strait Times, The Malay Mail and many more.
The MIRAD Dialogue 2 was held on 21st June 2021 and was participated by students and lecturers from the faculty and other universities. The panel was paired with Ms Nusrat Hassan as the moderator, who is also a student with broad experience in humanitarian and development programmes. The speaker discussed the efforts and challenges encountered in fulfilling aspirations toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Given the region’s extreme vulnerabilities in the increasing number of climate-related natural disasters including flooding of coastal areas, typhoons and cyclones, according to Dr Suziannah, ASEAN has identified one of its most urgent tasks which is to be strengthening capacities in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction through mechanisms such as the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER). Dr Suziannah further explained that the current ASEAN institutional framework on environment and climate change is constituted under the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) pillar. However, it has become increasingly clear that climate change issues are not the sole domain of environmental ministries.
At the international level, climate change is integrated and handled in different for a. Given that the issues become more cross-cutting and complex, a revolutionary rethink of its current institutional framework is needed on how best to coordinate and synthesise climate change issues across the different sectors in order to produce a coherent response to climate change.
All in all, the dialogue was a success and an eye-opener for the students. MIRAD students also had the opportunity to learn more about the ASEAN’s effort in combating environmental issues. The students realized that at this juncture of the collective efforts to address climate change is only possible through ASEAN’s willingness and ability to engage with other stakeholders, moving beyond the realm of governments and policymakers.