Evidence of Electricity Consumption Lead Climate Change in Malaysia

The consumption of electricity in Malaysia increase in demand as one of the driving forces of economic development. The main source of electric power generation in Malaysia depends on fossil fuels which lead to air pollution currently and a shortage of natural resources (fossil) in the future if this method continues. Moreover, this will cause a serious problem such as sustainability of energy choice and will harm the environment. This study investigates the relationship between climate variables and electric power consumption in Malaysia. The important climate variables included such as average temperature, average rainfall, forest area, carbon dioxide emission and arable land over a period of 1991 to 2015. Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test shows that average rainfall, average temperature, and electrical power consumption stationary at their level. However, forest area, carbon dioxide emission, and arable land stationary after first differences. The result of this study indicates that electric power consumption has a long-run relationship between average temperature and average rainfall. This indicates that electric power consumption has an impact on climate change in Malaysia. These studies also find evidence that unidirectional causality between electric power consumption and climate factors. Overall, the wise consumption of electricity and adopting renewable energy to generate electricity will reduce carbon emission in Malaysia.