Malaysia's new environment minister wants to put practical policies into action meaningfully

Nik Nazmi (third from left, in white shirt) at Kubang Keriang, Kota Baru, which is part of the National River Trail. The programme is a pollution prevention strategy begun by the previous administration. 'What’s good from the previous administration will continue. What’s important is whether it’s a good or bad policy. Like how Deng Xiao Ping said – it doesn’t matter if it’s a black or a white cat, as long as it catches mice,' says the new Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister. — Bernama

Malaysia's Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry combines what used to be two ministries previously, so new minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad certainly has a lot on his plate.

But he has vowed to give his focus to several priorities, including getting the National Adaptation Plan on Climate Change for Malaysia up and going.

On Sept 27, 2021, former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that Malaysia is committed to becoming a carbon-neutral nation by as early as 2050.

“I think Malaysia’s contribution to carbon emissions is relatively small compared with what the United States and Japan emit,” says Nik Nazmi.

“Yet we are just as susceptible – if not more so – to the sea rise, the heat waves and the heavy rains caused by climate change. So that is something that we need to do better on, having a national adaptation plan.

“I hope to get it out during my time here,” he says, calling the plan “one of the most important aspects” of his ministry.

However, the Climate Change Bill, which, according to his predecessor Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, was supposed to be finalised at the end of 2022 and tabled this year, has gone back to the drawing board.

“The ministry is in its early stages of developing the national climate change Bill. The development of this Bill is expected to take two to three years,” he said in reply to a question from Bentong MP Young Syefura Othman in Parliament on Feb 23, 2023.

Nik Nazmi also wants to speed up the country’s transition to renewable energy.

This is good news especially with the current focus on electric vehicles (EVs) – Budget 2023, announced on Feb 24, 2023, has several measures encouraging their adoption. But EVs charged by a “dirty” electricity grid that is mostly powered by coal, one of the most polluting fossil fuels, doesn’t really do much to reduce emissions. Currently, renewable energy is set to be 31% of Malaysia's power generation mix by 2025 and 40% by 2035.

While we’re inching towards clean energy, Nik Azmi wants to set up the infrastructure for EVs and the electrification of transport in general.

“It’s a very controversial thing because some people think that if I talk about EVs, it means that I want to subsidise Tesla, BMWs and all those expensive cars.

“But if you talk about creating the ecosystem for EVs, it’s also about motorbikes. Then we also have micromobility, [such as] scooters to provide the last mile connectivity for public transport,” he adds.

Without affordable EVs, Nik Nazmi explains there won’t be much impact in reducing the demand for conventional cars with internal combustion engines, which are one of the main sources for carbon emissions in Malaysia.

The sweet spot will be to reduce the price of EVs in Malaysia to around RM100,000.

“That’s the price the general public can afford and that will encourage big volume [of sales],” says Nik Nazmi.

The Cabinet, he adds, has also had some preliminary discussions on the possibility of lifting the ban on the export of renewable energy.

“Currently, we are banning it on the basis that we want to keep the RE mix in Malaysia but on the flip side, we can sell this at market rate, and when you sell it to Singapore, you can scale it up. You can also have quotas. So it’s worthwhile to rethink this,” he says.

The ministry, Nik Nazmi says, will also be revisiting some existing policies, such as the now almost forgotten ban on plastic straws and single-use plastics as well as the separation of household waste.

Many of these policies – such as waste separation – were announced earlier but failed to be implemented on the ground. Even some ministries in Putrajaya, he says, continue to use plastic bottled water during their events.

“I can understand if it’s out of KL, that’s fine. But if you’re talking about Putrajaya, some ministries are still using plastic bottles.

“That, to me, is not good. So we will relook at the policy. We are also having a discussion on the plastics policy and all those related things.

“It’s one thing having a policy so we can tell the world that in Malaysia, you have to separate your rubbish but if you go down to the ground, that’s not happening.

“That’s where we want to have meaningful policies. If it’s not practical yet, then fine, find things that are practical to be implemented,” he says.

Another issue that is close to Nik Nazmi’s heart is making Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports more transparent; currently they are required for any project over 50ha and for certain prescribed activities such as dredging and land reclamation.

“I think it’s crucial. EIAs are normally publicly available but you have underlying reports, such as soil tests and investigations and all those things, which are sometimes not publicly available.

“It doesn’t make sense that the EIA is publicly available but not the underlying reports. So I am working on that,” he says.

Another priority for Nik Nazmi will be finding more ways to ensure that forests – especially those along the Central Forest Spine and the Heart of Borneo – are better protected to prevent incidents of human-wildlife conflict.

Asked if he will continue the policies set by his predecessors, Nik Nazmi says, “What’s good from the previous administration will continue. What’s important is whether it’s a good or bad policy.

“Like how Deng Xiao Ping said – it doesn’t matter if it’s a black or a white cat, as long as it catches mice.

“But there are changes that we have initiated. We will see more over the next few months.”