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Climate Governance Malaysia
Private Sector Engagements with Key Stakeholders
“CAN Malaysia Achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2050?”
The climate emergency will require an All of Government and Whole of Society approach.
Climate Governance Malaysia in collaboration with the CEO Action Network propose to initiate a series of multi-ministerial engagements. This series of engagements will be conducted in close collaboration with other key stakeholders.
The approach in engaging with so many stakeholders will be a combination of open (public) sessions, round Table (closed door) sessions; and workshops.
Objectives
To provide a platform to solicit feedback on the viability of a national net zero emissions target by 2050.
Assess the need for a multi stakeholder platform for climate action in the country driven by the net zero target. The role of the platform would be to inform policy and provide signalling for the private sector.
Net zero emissions
Net zero emissions are achieved when anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period. Where multiple greenhouse gases are involved, the quantification of net zero emissions depends on the climate metric chosen to compare emissions of different gases (such as global warming potential, global temperature change potential, and others, as well as the chosen time horizon). See also Net zero CO2 emissions, Negative emissions, and Net negative emissions.
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
Intended Outcomes and Impacts
I) A report of private sector inputs for government consideration in preparation for COP26.
II) A way forward: create a platform for engagement between key stakeholders (whole of society & all of government) on increasing Climate Ambition.
Context
Businesses are under unprecedented pressure from their investors, regulators, financiers, customers and staff to demonstrate their climate resilience against a backdrop of a warming world and articulate climate ambition to demonstrate their ability to transition as aligned to commitments made in Paris in December 2015.
Cumulatively, as the largest emitters in each country, businesses are also having to demonstrate thought leadership in this scenario of a classic market failure where the costs of polluting and damage to the environment are borne by society at large but profits are reaped by the so-called “polluters”.
Many countries around the world have declared some form of long-term commitment towards net zero emissions, including a pricing or taxing carbon. Malaysia has not. A mandate of this nature would require the inputs from multiple ministries.
Many governments are now moving in the right direction. By early 2021, countries representing more than 65% of global carbon dioxide emissions and more than 70% of the world economy, will have made ambitious commitments to carbon neutrality.
The European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea, together with more than 110 other countries, have pledged net zero emissions by 2050; China says it will do so before 2060.
The private sector needs to make certain judgments around the climate crisis: whether it will be positioned on the right or wrong side of climate history, whether there's value being created or destroyed in the transition, what kind of disclosure is needed, what are the technology breakthroughs needed, the role and opportunities in nature and biodiversity protection, stress testing, conversations with investors and the public about how well industry is positioned, do we need to consider more than net zero plans and specific carbon / emissions reduction objectives, what is the implied temperature warming of our assets or portfolio and inter-generational equity in drawdown of financial and nature reserves.
Therefore, there needs to be a high degree of confidence in stated national ambition and the involvement of private sector or industries, with sound understanding of public sentiment, to solve these issues, whether in the ideation, financing or implementation stages.
There is therefore an urgent need for an alignment of government policy between economic, climate and energy priorities, against a backdrop of socio-economic wellbeing of citizens.
When government policy is explicit and relatively predictable (whether price of carbon or regulation on internal combustion engines or hydrogen, etc), we can then rely on the private sector to act to enable a smooth transition for businesses and the public alike.
To improve predictability, many countries have established long term ambitions, mostly related to net zero emissions by 2050 or 2060. However, these long term ambitions need to be matched by short term policy instruments and mechanisms.
Follow our Round Table Engagements to assess the viability of a Net Zero Emissions target by 2050 and what climate action is required to achieve this
About CEO Action Network (CAN)
CAN is a closed-door peer-to-peer informal network of CEOs and Board members focused on sustainability advocacy, capacity building, action and performance. Through a dedicated Working Group, Workstreams and active members driving bespoke initiatives, CAN aspires to catalyse its members towards shaping future-ready and ESG-integrated business models and ecosystems.
Over the next 12 months, we are committed to engage with various stakeholders including our supply chain, regulators and policy makers, government, as well as our peers across various sectors to forge partnerships that are committed to responsible business practices and sustainable development. In the process, we will not only exchange industry best practices, but also share proven strategies and future-proof ideas with CAN participants.
41 CEOs, Board Members, & Senior Management representing Member organisations
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>20 Critical Sectors Represented
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1 Working Group with 2 Workstreams on Policy Advocacy &Awareness and Capacity Building
Thanks to our Partners:
Institute for Strategic and International Studies (ISIS)
ISIS Malaysia was established on 8 April 1983 as an autonomous, not-for-profit research organization. ISIS Malaysia has a diverse research focus which includes economics, foreign policy, security studies, nation-building, social policy, technology, innovation and environmental studies. It also undertakes research collaboration with national and international organisations in important areas such as national development and international affairs.
ISIS Malaysia has been at the forefront of sustainable development and climate change policy research over the years. This includes leading the first National Communication to the UNFCCC as well as various research on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
PWC
PWC’s sustainability and climate change advisory practice was established in Malaysia in 2007. It works with governments, business and global institutions, helping clients to drive innovation, stay competitive and preserve the environment.
And also to our Supporters:
Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group is a leading management consulting firm with offices in over 90 cities spanning more than 50 countries. The firm has a dedicated Centre for Climate Action that partners with the private, public and the social sectors to help them prepare for a decarbonized world, supporting them as they drive technological and economic transformations and realize competitive advantage in a low-carbon economy.
BCG has broad and deep climate expertise and has supported the development of national decarbonization roadmaps and assessments for major countries as well as sector specific decarbonization roadmaps. The firm works with major corporations on climate action and has worked on 600+ climate and sustainability projects to date globally.
BCG also has climate partnerships with leading organizations such as the World Economic Forum, COP26 Presidency, OGCI, WBCSD and WWF to advance the climate agenda at a global scale. BCG regularly publishes thought leadership in collaboration with partners to advance the climate action agenda globally and in the region.
The firm has set a target to achieve net zero climate impact by 2030 with plans to reduce direct energy and electricity emissions per employee by 90% by 2025 and have 100% emissions neutralized via carbon removal projects by 2030.
WWF Malaysia
Established in 1972 with only two staff members manning the organisation, WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature – Malaysia) is today a leading national conservation organisation in Malaysia supported by over 200 staff members who operate from programme offices in Selangor, Sabah and Kuching and site offices across the country. A science-based non-governmental organisation, in essence, WWFMY forms part of a global network of offices engaged in biodiversity conservation, policy studies, as well as sustainable production and community development, amongst others. Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and wildlife, WWF’s efforts to conserve nature focus on six major goals – forests, oceans, wildlife, food, climate and energy, as well as freshwater – and three key drivers of environmental problems – markets, finance and governance. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.
In terms of climate change, WWFMY has also been supporting the subcommittees of the Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3) since mid-2020 as an invited technical expert and observer member (JC3 is a policy-industry working group established by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Securities Commission (SC) to drive and coordinate the financial industry’s collective response to climate risks). We have also been contributing to the refinement of the Climate Change and Principle-based Taxonomy with BNM and JC3. Recently, WWFMY was invited to be part of the industry wide VBIAF sectoral guide working group, building on our active contribution to the previous VBIAF sectoral guides on palm oil, renewable energy and energy efficiency in 2019-2020. WWFMY was also recently appointed a knowledge advisor by Capital Markets Malaysia for their Center for Sustainable Corporations. We have also been actively engaging in the policy formulation space with the national government and involved in the preparation of national reports by the Government on climate change like national communications and biennial update reports, NDCs, and development planning like the 5 year plans and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) roadmaps. Overall, WWFMY strives to mainstream solutions that address the twin problems of climate and nature loss together such as nature-based solutions.
WWF network is also involved in extensive initiatives to foster stronger climate action, particularly by the corporate community. This includes the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), Business Climate Network and Alliances for Climate Action amongst others, and work at city level through the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC). You can learn more about this and our other global climate initiatives from this site: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/climate_and_energy_practice/