The Malaysian government has published the detailed version of its National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) that aims to accelerate the country’s energy transition and reduce carbon emissions significantly.
The roadmap states that, as of 2020, four energy sources comprised the national energy supply, of which natural gas accounted for 42.4 percent. Natural gas was followed by crude oil and petroleum products with 27.3 percent, coal with 26.4 percent and renewable energy (mainly hydroelectric, solar and bioenergy) with 3.9 percent.
The first phase of the roadmap will focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydrogen, bioenergy, green mobility and carbon capture, utilization and storage. Accordingly, the country will restrict the construction of new coal power plants and increase the share of renewable energy to 70.0 percent by 2050, while switching to energy efficient practices, encouraging electric vehicles, increasing public transport use, and improving carbon footprint accounting.
According to the roadmap, this transition will generate economic opportunities and attract multinational companies to operate in Malaysia. The projects as part of the roadmap are expected to attract an investment of over RM 25 billion ($5.37 billion) through public and private funding, create job opportunities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of more than 10,000 gigagrams of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. The roadmap also estimates that Malaysia will need RM 435 billion-1.85 trillion ($93.45 billion-397 billion) to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It also states that “about RM 637 billion ($136 billion) will be needed to increase renewable energy capacity to 70 percent by 2050.”
Malaysia also launched its first carbon market called the Bursa Malaysia Carbon Exchange in March this year, though carbon trading is still at early stages.