March 15 is World Consumer Rights Day. The theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2023 is Empowering Consumers towards Clean Energy. With energy prices spiraling and global temperatures reaching record highs, there is a critical need to shift towards affordable and clean energy.
The theme will build on growing global awareness that consumption shifts will be key to meeting climate goals. In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that demand side strategies or in other words behavioral change of energy consumption by consumers could reduce future greenhouse emissions by up to 70% by 2050. With the window to catastrophic climate change fast closing, FOMCA in support of the global consumer movement will use World Consumer Rights Day 2023 as an opportunity to promote and build clean energy systems that protect and empower consumers.
Consumers play a critical role in transitioning towards clean energy as they are the consumers of energy services and thus as consumers have the potential to take action that accelerates clean energy transitions.
According to the Statistics Department Malaysia, household consumption of electricity per capita rose from 489 kilowatts per hour in 2016 to 935 kilowatts per hour in 2020. Further in Malaysia, it is estimated that 82% of electricity users are domestic users. Most of the energy in Malaysia is sourced from oil, coal and gas.
During the pandemic, many consumers as they spent more time at home, complained of increasing electricity charges. Thus measures to reduce energy usage can help to reduce household expenses as well as national energy consumption.
Understanding energy conservation to become more energy efficient can help both the consumer and the environment. By using energy saving and energy management techniques, it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as lower household energy bills.
There are two components to energy saving; energy conservation and energy efficiency. Energy conservation involves altering our behaviour, for example turning of the lights or air-condition when we leave the room or unplugging or turning off plugs at the wall when the appliance is not in use. Energy efficiency is making conscious choice to choose lights or appliance which use less electricity. For example choosing light emitting diode (LED) over incandescent light or choosing energy efficient washing machines, dishwashers and water heaters.
Consumers certainly can play a significant role in reducing energy consumption so as to reduce greenhouse emissions and thus creating a better environment as well as reducing household expenditure on energy.
However, to empower consumers energy literacy is crucial.
The National Youth Climate Change survey found that 92% of young Malaysians identify climate change as a crises and 9 in 10 youths are already taking individual actions to address this issue. Youths today are more connected to the global world and thus have built a strong awareness of issues related to climate change and its impact on the economy as well as the wellbeing of the community.
Unfortunately, consumer empowerment through energy literacy has not been given priority by the government. An energy literate person knows how much energy he uses, for what and where the energy comes from and is able to make informed decisions based on impacts and consequences. Most importantly beyond understanding, an energy literate person acts to reduce his energy footprint and commit to influence society on practical ways to reduce their energy footprint.
In conjunction with World Consumer Rights Day 2023 themed “Empowering Consumers towards Clean Energy” FOMCA calls on the government to greatly increase efforts through energy literacy programmes to empower consumers to play their role in addressing the impacts of climate change, as well as reducing their household energy expenses.
