**3. Methodology**

*Climate Change and Agriculture*

its kind carried out in Malaysia.

**perspective**

According to [17], there was an earlier LCA study for the production of natural

rubber latex concentrate and skim block rubber in North Sumatera, Indonesia involving two latex concentrate factories. The objectives of the study by [17] is not only confined to produce life cycle inventories and environmental impact data from the life cycle impact assessment stage, but the objective was further expanded to include the assessment on the level of eco-efficiency for the production of natural rubber latex concentrate and skim block rubber by utilizing the values obtain from the life cycle impact assessment analysis based on Eco-Indicator 99 methodology [17]. However, this LCA study for the Malaysian rubber industry is the first study of

**2.4 Lack of data on the rubber cultivation in Malaysia from cradle to grave** 

Conducting LCA study for the natural rubber cup lump production and SMR block rubber production is the right step towards providing support to the Malaysian SMR block rubber industry. This may contribute more details and transparent information regarding the environmental impacts and the GHGs emission in the production of Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) block rubber from cradle to gate approach. The information from this study on LCA for the production of SMR block rubber will be very valuable for the international tires manufacturers especially in Europe to incorporate it as the verified background data in their LCA study

The detailed information on the GHGs emissions from the LCA study for the production of SMR block rubber will also be very useful in assisting the Malaysian based rubber products to get certified by the newly launched Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) Environmental Declaration Carbon Footprint Type III. The SIRIM Environmental Declaration Carbon Footprint Type III is part of the MyHIJAU Mark and is eligible for Malaysian

**2.5 Lack of detailed information on GHGs emission and the possibility of setting up voluntary carbon trading for Malaysian rubber industry**

In short, it is timely that the GHGs emission related to the Malaysian rubber industry is properly studied and documented extensively for the benefits of the Malaysian rubber industry and Malaysia as whole. The results from the quantification of GHGs emission work for the Malaysian rubber industry using LCA approach will notably help in filling the information gap as described above. The results from this LCA study on the GHGs emission for the Malaysian rubber industry can also be used to project the environmental sustainability of the rubber planting activities in Malaysia as compared to other two major crops in Malaysia which are planting of oil

Climate change is summarized by [18] as the extraordinary warming of the earth from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The current anthropogenic emission of GHGs is the highest in history and is driven largely by human activities through infrastructure development, industries, agriculture and motor vehicles [10, 11]. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide at present are unprecedented at least for the last 800,000 years [11]. According

for the tire production from cradle to grave approach.

Government Green Procurement Program.

**2.6 Climate change and sustainable development**

palm and paddy cultivation.

**186**

The main goal of the study is to provide comprehensive inventories, detailed quantification of the environmental impact and GHGs emission for the cultivation of rubber tree from cradle to grave in Malaysia. Therefore, this study is required to quantify the GHGs emission and recommended strategies for improvement based on the individual Life cycle inventory (LCI) for the cultivation of rubber trees from cradle to grave. The environmental impacts and hotspots identification for the study was carried out using SimaPro software version 7.3.3 developed by Pre Consultants B.V. Eco-indicator 99 was selected as the impact assessment methodology.

For this study, the survey only represents the rubber smallholders under the supervision of rubber related agencies in Malaysia. Individual rubber smallholders are excluded from this survey as there are great difficulties in getting verified information from this group of rubber smallholders on their agronomic practices as these smallholders normally did not have any proper written record on their agronomic practices and few of them are even illiterate. Amongst the main three government agencies in Malaysia which are responsible in supervising and managing the small plot of rubber planted area owned by the rubber smallholders, only The Federal Land and Development Authority (FELDA) and Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA) agreed to take part in this study while Rubber Industry Smallholders' Development Authority (RISDA) did not allow this study to be conducted in the rubber planting areas owned by the rubber smallholders under their supervision. Based on the discussion with FELDA and FELCRA management and supported by [22, 23] data, there are 21 FELDA schemes and 274 FELCRA projects that are currently in the mature rubber stage in Peninsular Malaysia.

#### **3.1 Life cycle assessment (LCA)**

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental management tool that enables quantification of environmental burdens and their potential impacts over the whole life cycle of a product, process or activity [24]. Primarily, LCA has been introduced in product manufacturing for the purpose of tracing direct impacts and impacts associated with a product throughout the entire life cycle from cradle to grave for the purpose of getting a holistic overview of the environmental burden associated with the products [25].

**Figure 1.** *Stages of LCA.*

There are four phases in LCA studies namely goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. The relationship between the phases is illustrated in **Figure 1**.
