Malaysia to prioritise sustainable production, consumption practices across sectors

KUALA LUMPUR, 8 Nov – Malaysia will prioritise sustainable production and consumption practices across sectors by targeting economic activities that contribute much of Malaysia's carbon emissions, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

The government will develop policies to make the country more carbon-efficient, particularly in the areas of electricity, transportation, and cities, he added.

According to BP’s research, Malaysia's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were 250.3 million tonnes last year, up from 241.6 million tonnes the previous year, with energy (electricity consumption), mobility (vehicles), and waste the primary sources of emissions (municipal solid waste that ends up in landfills).

"Malaysia is moving in the right direction, we have mapped all our budget initiatives to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), allowing us to better match the national landscape of financing programmes with SDG-related projects,” he said during a keynote interview on Malaysia's sustainability agenda today. “As a result, we are actually among the 10 countries in the world which have fully aligned our national budget to SDGs based on the United Nations’ assessments."

The interview was held in conjunction with the three-day Sustainable Finance Week Virtual Conference at Expo 2020 Dubai starting today.

Malaysia's Budget 2022 includes sustainability measures such as a transition to low-carbon practices, environmental and biodiversity protection, and community empowerment.