BY: AKMAL AZIZ

Delegates and participants at the recently concluded National Climate Governance Summit were told that while Malaysia is seeking an energy transition from reliance on fossil fuels to renewable sources, they lack the necessary support.

This disclosure by the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry was the reason why the nation had difficulty transforming its energy landscape and to focus on sustainability.

The hold up, those who attended the seminar were briefed, was because of a lack of support from foreign entities, which is hampering the ministry’s efforts, as Malaysia only accounts for 0.69 percent of global carbon emission.

This, nevertheless, does not deter the ministry from embarking on climate governance to achieve a net zero target by 2050 by looking into carbon capture technologies and to phase out the dependence on coal.

This means shutting down existing coal fired power plants and ensuring that by year 2040 no new coal fired plants will be commissioned but unfortunately Malaysia is not receiving support for this from foreign nations.

The nation has set targets for the future and provides at present a huge ecological service as a developing country by maintaining more than 50 percent of forest cover and this is why the ministry is urging the developed world for assistance.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher