How viable are green investments in Malaysia
To find out where such investments stand in Malaysia, or even within the Asean region, and how they, and green bonds, can deliver genuine impact and not become just a branding exercise, StarESG reached out to Climate Governance Malaysia (CGM) council chairman Dr Gary Theseira for his views.
How has the demand for ESG-linked investments evolved in the past five years, and what's driving this shift?
Theseira: ESG-linked investments have grown in the past five years and are expected to continue growing as institutional investors, driven by regulatory pressures, stakeholder demands and a strategic shift toward long-term value creation, are playing a catalytic role in channelling capital into sustainable assets at unprecedented rates.
Leading the shift are institutional investors such as asset managers (like BlackRock, Vanguard), pension funds (GPIF, CalPERS), insurance companies (Allianz, Swiss Re), sovereign wealth funds (NBIM, ADIA) and development banks (IFC, EIB).
What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of green finance in Malaysia today?
Dr Gary Theseira serves as the Climate Governance Malaysia (CGM) Council chairman and was recently appointed to the Sustainability Committee of the Malaysian Ratings Corporation (MARC) Solutions. An Adjunct Associate Professor at the Asia School of Business (ASB), he also sits on the board of the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (CETDEM) and serves the Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3) in the Review Committee of the Climate Data Catalogue (DC).
Theseira: Green finance is, itself, a broad concept encompassing green loans, green bonds and green investments, among others. These are commonly understood as having environmental benefits as their defining characteristic. Included, therefore, are climate benefits, and by definition, more recent concepts such as Climate Transition Finance. This is an area of ongoing definition, and so it is not surprising that there exist a number of areas of confusion resulting from differing opinions between progressive developed economies and more practical developing economies.
A common assumption is that green finance necessarily excludes any form of fossil fuel use. However, many currently acknowledge that climate transition may involve, firstly, shifting from coal to a transition fuel such as natural gas, before moving to low-emission fuels such as biomass or biogas.
Another widely held assumption is that green investments are invariably lower yielding than conventional investments due to higher capital, operating and compliance costs. While it is true that many ESG-labelled funds have struggled to keep pace with sector averages, a small proportion (around 5.4%) have consistently delivered strong, risk adjusted returns over one, three and five-year timeframes.
How does Malaysia compare to other Asean neighbours in green financing progress?
Theseira: A healthy and vibrant Green Finance ecosystem must necessarily be underpinned by robust governance and transparent disclosure frameworks. In terms of the former, Malaysia's adoption of Taxonomies for loans and investments, which has helped initiate the evolving Asean Taxonomy (now in its third version, with version four under development by independent assurance and risk management provider Det Norske Veritas) is clearly an area in which Malaysia is exercising leadership.
In terms of the latter, Malaysia was recently recognised by the IFRS Foundation for its commitment to sustainability reporting. In its recently issued Jurisdictional Profile, Malaysia is acknowledged as adopting the ISSB Standards with limited transition (an acknowledgement of the global standing of Malaysia's National Sustainability Reporting Framework, NSRF), representing the only jurisdiction in the Asean region to have done so.
In addition, Malaysia's Simplified ESG Disclosure Guide (SEDG) has also provided input into the Asean SEDGE or ASEDGE for SMEs in Supply Chains. Finally, Malaysia's adoption of the Maqasid Al-Shariah Guidance for Islamic Capital Markets further underscores Malaysia's commitment to enhance the role of Islamic Capital Markets in facilitating equitable growth and building and promoting a sustainable and inclusive green stakeholder economy.
Are there gaps in Malaysia's financial policy or regulatory environment that need addressing?
Theseira: With the announcement that Sabah has adopted state-level climate legislation (Sarawak passed climate legislation in 2023), Peninsular Malaysia remains the only territory without climate legislation.
Even as the various taxonomies govern the range of investments and selectively promote the financing of climate-positive economic activities, and the NSRF and SEDG drive respectively, the mandatory disclosure by large corporations and voluntary reporting by SMEs—these efforts by themselves are not sufficient.
Only a legal framework of emissions allowances (caps)—with incentives for deep cuts and consequences for excessive emissions, such as a carbon tax or a carbon exchange—will gradually but effectively, drive national emissions toward net zero.
We understand that such a climate change act is under development and will be tabled in Parliament in the not-too-distant future. Also needed is the sectoral and industry-specific data for benchmarking and threshold setting.
We anticipate that the work done by the Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3)—in particular, subcommittee 5—on data gaps, to develop and maintain the National Climate Data Catalogue, will deliver the needed data in a timely manner.
Beyond carbon footprints, what underrated ESG metrics should investors prioritise?
Theseira: Exposure and vulnerability to climate hazards should be areas of primary concern, as should risks associated with transition, including carbon border adjustments and regulations or legislation governing imports. Water consumption by industries and liquid effluents and waste are an often-overlooked factor, but this vital information is a mainstay of environmental impact reporting, even under the SEDG.
Impacts on nature and biodiversity are also moving to the fore, as recommended disclosures under the Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (T D) receive increasing attention. Social and governance-related issues surrounding human rights, health and safety, anti-corruption, conflict-of-interest, gender and mental health issues should also receive due attention.
How do we ensure that ESG investments and green bonds in Malaysia deliver genuine impact and not just a branding exercise?
Theseira: It is not always easy to verify impact as economic ecosystems are large and complex, with numerous interlinkages. Nevertheless, some instrument types (for example, sustainability linked bonds) that link performance (as determined by KPI achievement) to payments, may provide project-level verification of impact.
At a national scale, the level of achievement of national goals or targets (as driven, for example, by renewable energy bonds) may also serve as an indicator of impact. Whatever the scale, however, a robust governance framework built around mandatory disclosure of key data will translate into greater transparency and certainty of the measured indicators and enhanced confidence of the impacts.
How would technology impact ESG finance in Malaysia?
Theseira: Although there has been significant hype surrounding technologies such as fintech and blockchain, ultimately, they serve as tools or platforms that might possibly improve the speed or efficiency of tasks we already undertake using existing financial frameworks and accounting mechanisms.
I believe the real game-changer is artificial intelligence (AI), and that there could be both negative as well as positive impacts arising from its use. I fully expect that cyber-criminals are already using AI to enhance the believability of scams, frauds and phishing schemes; something that deserves constant vigilance and tight scrutiny.
On the other hand, I see AI being used to refine and localise global circulation models and to improve extreme event prediction while providing more accurate early warning to vulnerable populations.
How do SMEs fit in the green finance ecosystem, and how can they be better supported?
Theseira: I believe Malaysian SMEs are moving very rapidly up the learning curve. Small businesses ranging from palm oil smallholders in Johor to seaweed farmers in Tawau are already using e-payment systems and familiarising themselves with the SEDG. In this regard, they are the first link in a data chain that runs from them to the public-listed companies (PLCs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) they supply. The PLCs and MNCs will use this data to fulfil part of their NSRF compliance.
From there the data chain moves to the financial institutions (banks, insurers and re-insurers) that provide the PLCs and MNCs with capital and operating loans and investments. The data are then used by the financial institutions to prepare their climate risk management and scenario analysis as well as their climate stress tests, which they ultimately submit to the Central Bank, whose remit is to safeguard our sovereign rating.
With this understanding, PLCs and MNCs are reaching out to the SMEs in their supply chains, offering training and capacity building, often supported by financial institutions willing to help finance these activities, their investment in return for comprehensive and timely data. However, it is also important not to forget the many SMEs that are not part of a supply chain but rather sell directly to consumers. The Madani principle of leaving no one behind should be invoked to ensure that all businesses, large and small, have a role to play in helping the nation transition to net zero and beyond.
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