KUALA LUMPUR: As a developing nation, Malaysia is seeking an energy transition from overly relying on fossil fuels to renewable sources to reach net zero carbon emissions.
But a lack of support from foreign entities is hampering its efforts, said Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (pix).
Speaking when he officiated at the National Climate Governance Summit on Tuesday, he said Malaysia is transforming its energy landscape and focusing on sustainability.
“We recognise that as a country, Malaysia only contributes 0.69% of global carbon emissions. However, this should not stop us from being one of the most ambitious countries in the region in terms of climate governance.
“We are looking into the possibility of retiring our existing coal-fired power plants and we have declared that there will be no new ones by 2040.
“During this process, we plan to mothball our coal power plants or minimise their operation. We are also looking into carbon capture technologies to achieve our net zero target by 2050.”
However, Nik Nazmi said as a developing country, Malaysia was not receiving enough support from foreign nations to achieve the set targets.
“We are providing a huge ecological service to the planet by maintaining more than 50% forest coverage. This is a major significance that people must recognise and there must be more assistance from the developed world.”
He said Malaysia’s focus will be on increasing renewable energy use, especially by large corporations.
“One thing we did was to increase electricity tariffs and reduce power subsidies to large businesses and multinational corporations, which were initially unhappy but have now started using energy-saving measures.
“They are installing solar energy panels on their premises to offset the increase in electricity bills.”
Nik Nazmi said setting a target is only the first step in climate governance and what follows are the major policy decisions made that are needed to achieve it.
“The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act will be tabled in Parliament this year and it will mandate the biggest energy consumers to perform energy audits. The Climate Change Act will be brought to Parliament in two years as well.
“This is because we are taking time to have discussions with stakeholders and refer to nations where their Acts have made a positive impact. This will further help us in our decarbonisation journey. We want to create a meaningful Act instead of a token one.”
Nik Nazmi also said the government will finalise its long-term low emissions development strategies, which will plot how the country achieves its net zero target.
The National Climate Governance Summit began on Tuesday and will end today at the Bank Negara Sasana Kijang conference hall.
It serves to help SMEs adapt to the growing issues of climate change and sustainability.
The three-day event was organised by Climate Governance Malaysia in collaboration with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, SME Corporation Malaysia and the UN Development Programme.
Attendees included distinguished figures such as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Pahang Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong and UK Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
