Malaysia climate Bill opportunity
For emission-intensive industries, the Bill should establish phased reduction targets that take into account technical and financial limitations. Equally important are fiscal incentives for the adoption of clean technology and dedicated support for energy efficiency improvements, enabling businesses to adapt without compromising competitiveness.
The agriculture and land use sectors deserve tailored policies that support sustainable practices while preserving livelihoods. Rather than forming new institutions, the Bill should empower existing farmer cooperatives to share climate-smart technologies and create reward systems for smallholders who contribute to ecosystem conservation.
Crucially, the Bill offers an opportunity to include a comprehensive Just Transition Framework, supported by a national green development strategy. This should encompass vocational training for emerging green jobs, assistance for socially and economically exposed groups, and sector-specific roadmaps for a low-carbon transformation. Measurable targets for renewables, waste reduction and employment creation must be set.
With momentum building both globally and locally, Malaysia has begun laying the groundwork for climate action and must now seize the opportunity while it is still hot. This Bill presents an opportunity to demonstrate that environmental responsibility and economic prosperity can coexist when policies are inclusive, well-designed and grounded in local realities.
Koh Yok Hwa
Kuala Lumpur
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The Star
5 days ago
- The Star
Heat is on for climate Bill
PETALING JAYA: Spain is scorching in 43°C weather this week while Japan saw its highest ever temperature of 41.8°C just last week. Last month, Turkiye set a new record of 50.5°C. News reports said recent floods in Pakistan were caused by heavy rainfall worsened by 'human-caused climate change'. As the global temperature rises, environmental activists and other professionals in Malaysia are pressing for the Climate Change Bill to be tabled in Parliament soon to make environmental rights a human rights concern. 'We strongly view the impact of climate change, such as extreme heat, not merely as environmental or economic issues but as fundamental threats to human rights,' said Malaysian Bar president Mohamad Ezri Abdul Wahab. He added that the Bar Council had been advocating for a rights-based approach in drafting the Climate Change Bill. The Bar Council, he said, recently called on the government to ensure that Bill explicitly integrates human rights principles to protect the most vulnerable, including the present and future generations, from the impact of climate change. 'Framing climate protection through the Bill will be in alignment with both the Paris Agreement and Malaysia's own sustainable development agenda. 'Any delay risks weakening action on climate change, a crisis that demands urgency and legally enforceable mandates,' he said when contacted. News reports in May stated that the Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Ministry will table a National Climate Change Bill in August. However, the Bill has yet to appear in the Order Paper of the Dewan Rakyat, which began its sittings on July 21. Universiti Malaysia Terengganu adjunct professor Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said there should be urgency in tabling the Bill because climate change is a reality which impacts the lives and livelihoods of the people. 'The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that global sea levels will rise by 0.26m to 0.77m by 2100. 'This will have an impact on people and their livelihoods as some 40% of Malaysians live within the coastal zone,' he said. 'There ought to be a target date for the Bill to be tabled and it should be done under the current administration. 'If this can be done, it will be seen as a legacy of the Prime Minister for all Malaysians and the generations to come,' he said when contacted yesterday. Sahabat Alam Malaysia president Meenakshi Raman voiced hope that the Climate Change Bill would be comprehensive and responsive enough to protect Malaysians from the adverse impacts of climate change. She lauded the effort by the government to address the issue but said that the proposed law is lacking in several key areas. 'From what we know, the Bill does not address loss and damage. 'We do not know why, even though loss and damage is the third pillar of the Paris Agreement related to mitigation, damage and adaptation and loss,' she said. Meenakshi noted that the adaption to the impacts of climate change was also crucial. 'The government is doing a National Adaptation Plan but this is really moving too slowly. It needs to be expedited,' she said. Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood of Sunway University's centre for planetary health said it is urgent that the nation has a law on environmental rights which recognises it as a human right. 'It is time for Malaysia and the region to move beyond rhetoric and embed climate justice into legal frameworks and public policy. 'Recognising environmental rights as human rights is not merely aspirational but essential for safeguarding the dignity and survival of vulnerable communities,' she said when contacted. In a write-up in The Star last Wednesday, she recounted a recent experience in the United Kingdom where she attended environmental events and found herself unprepared for the heat. 'It wasn't just uncomfortable, it was alarming,' she wrote.
The Star
06-08-2025
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Ecowatch: Extreme heat is a human rights crisis
I WAS in the United Kingdom recently for London Climate Action Week and the Global Tipping Points Conference 2025 and wasn't prepared for the heat – it wasn't just uncomfortable, it was alarming. Europe has been scorched by extreme heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 46°C, triggering wildfires in Turkey and Greece and causing mass evacuations, closing 1,900 schools in France, and causing over 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 cities. Meteorologists are calling this 'exceptional'. In reality, it's the new normal. These extremes are not seasonal anomalies. They are a sign of political failure and, increasingly, a human rights crisis. On July 23, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that countries have a legal duty to protect their citizens from climate change. Failure to regulate private companies that pollute the environment with greenhouse gas emissions may constitute a breach of international law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights also released an advisory opinion in early July, explicitly recognising the right to life, health, food, water, and a safe environment. While not legally binding, advisory opinions carry moral and legal weight. They help shape the direction of international law and public conscience. The message is clear: climate inaction violates human rights. Malaysia has not yet classified climate change as a human rights issue, although the Malaysian Bar Council is advocating for its inclusion in the draft Climate Change Bill and as an amendment to the Federal Constitution. At the same time, we have a real opportunity to ensure the monumental adoption of the Asean Environ-mental Rights Declaration that Malaysia is leading on, recognising access to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right. The courts' opinions should add urgency. Climate justice is human rights justice. And in the court of public conscience, the fossil fuel industry is no longer just a suspect, it is guilty. Firefighters battling a wildfire in north-west Spain on Sunday. Europe has been scorched by extreme heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 46°C, triggering wildfires in Turkey and Greece and causing mass evacuations, closing 1,900 schools in France, and causing over 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 cities. -- AP Extreme heat is one of the clearest signs of climate breakdown. And it is supercharged by fossil fuels. Every tonne of coal, oil, and gas we burn worsens the crisis. Children, the elderly, those which chronic illnesses, and people in energy poverty are suffering most – and dying. Meanwhile, those responsible continue to profit and obstruct change. A new report to the UN General Assembly by Elisa Morgera, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, calls this out directly: We must defossilise. Fossil fuels are the primary cause of warming, but the industry has spent decades deploying a well-documented playbook of climate obstruction by denying the science, delaying regulation, and deceiving the public with false solutions. PR and advertising agencies are complicit in greenwashing and false solutions. And make no mistake, this is happening in Malaysia too with carbon capture and storage being sold as a magic bullet and liquefied natural gas being framed as 'greener' than coal. Fossil fuel subsidies continue to dwarf investment in clean energy. It's time to ask some questions. What is the cost to our rights? What is the price of inaction? Asean, home to some of the world's most climate-vulnerable populations, cannot delay. 'Cleaner alongside fossil' is not a transition – it is a trap. Net zero targets are meaningless if emissions keep rising and carbon lock-in takes hold. We must phase out fossil fuels, not accommodate them. And defossilisation must be fair. This means reskilling and training workers, redirecting subsidies towards public services, investing in development of green technologies and jobs, and calling forcibly on PR and advertising firms to cut ties with their fossil fuel clients. Clean air, liveable temperatures, and dignity in work are not luxuries – they are fundamental human rights. The heat we are experiencing is not normal; it is a warning. The science is clear. The law is catching up. Policy must move at the speed of both. For people and the planet, defossilisation is not radical. It's a moral and legal imperative. It is the only path forward. Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, a physician and experienced crisis leader, is the executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University. She is the founder of Mercy Malaysia and has served in leadership roles internationally with the United Nations and Red Cross for the last decade. She writes on Planetary Health Matters once a month in Ecowatch . The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.
The Star
27-07-2025
- The Star
Malaysia climate Bill opportunity
The impending Climate Change Bill presents Malaysia with a timely opportunity to strengthen climate governance, promote environmental sustainability and open new opportunities for the business sector, while ensuring a balance between ecological and economic priorities. As global climate commitments tighten, Malaysia must craft legislation suited to its developmental context rather than unquestioningly adopting foreign models. For emission-intensive industries, the Bill should establish phased reduction targets that take into account technical and financial limitations. Equally important are fiscal incentives for the adoption of clean technology and dedicated support for energy efficiency improvements, enabling businesses to adapt without compromising competitiveness. The agriculture and land use sectors deserve tailored policies that support sustainable practices while preserving livelihoods. Rather than forming new institutions, the Bill should empower existing farmer cooperatives to share climate-smart technologies and create reward systems for smallholders who contribute to ecosystem conservation. Crucially, the Bill offers an opportunity to include a comprehensive Just Transition Framework, supported by a national green development strategy. This should encompass vocational training for emerging green jobs, assistance for socially and economically exposed groups, and sector-specific roadmaps for a low-carbon transformation. Measurable targets for renewables, waste reduction and employment creation must be set. With momentum building both globally and locally, Malaysia has begun laying the groundwork for climate action and must now seize the opportunity while it is still hot. This Bill presents an opportunity to demonstrate that environmental responsibility and economic prosperity can coexist when policies are inclusive, well-designed and grounded in local realities. Koh Yok Hwa Kuala Lumpur
