PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is considering a coal carbon reduction programme by launching a request for information (RFI) to look into, among others, the early retirement of coal power plants.
Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said Malaysia was among the 10 countries or agencies invited to attend the launch of France’s Carbon Transition Accelerator during the COP28 currently being held in Dubai.
The invitation was extended by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“I mentioned we are considering a coal carbon reduction programme by launching a request for information to look into early retirement, mothballing, co-firing or brown to green swaps. In JPPPET 2022, I had already announced no new coal plants. Since December 2022, the new government also has started to shift from blanket to targeted subsidies for fossil fuel-powered electricity,” Nik Nazmi said on Instagram.
JPPPET is the Planning and Implementation of Electricity Supply and Tariff Committee meeting.
Nik Nazmi said one of the challenges for early retirement in Asia, acknowledged by the Institute of Energy Agency (IEA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), was that the coal plants were much younger than those in the West.
“... and finding a financial solution for phasing out coal is challenging,” he said.
More than 7,000MW of coal power plants’ power purchase agreement is set to expire by 2033 in Malaysia.
As of 2020, nearly 66% of the electricity generated in the peninsula was from imported coal, mostly from Indonesia, Australia, Russia and South Africa.
Other leaders at the launch included US Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chin.
Also present were representatives from the ADB, IEA and Powering Past Coal Alliance.
Nik Nazmi said that during the meeting, he expressed Malaysia’s interest in understanding the Just Energy Transition Partnership deal, which the Vietnamese government had subscribed to in unlocking financing and support for sustainable energy transition, and in which Malayisa could follow.
“I also stressed the importance of technical capacity and capability support from developed countries and the international community,” he said.
