KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia wants better access to climate financing for secondary and intermediary cities, with greater investment in resilient housing to guard against floods, urban heat island effects and other climate threats.
Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming (pic), who made the call, said these cities continued to face barriers in accessing direct concessional financing and project preparation support.
To bridge the gap, Nga who is president of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Assembly, outlined four priorities – reducing municipal investment risks; empowering local authorities to structure bankable and shovel-ready projects; protecting vulnerable communities; and mobilising innovative capital.
“We must empower local authorities to develop bankable, implementation-ready projects, while scaling up informal settlement upgrading and climate-proof social housing,” he said at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) Leaders’ Summit High-Level Dialogue on Urban Resilience, Adaptation and Climate Action in Antalya, Turkiye, yesterday, Bernama reported.
Nga also expressed strong support for Turkiye’s Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility (SURFF), urging international financial institutions to scale up the initiative.
Sharing Malaysia’s experience, Nga highlighted his ministry’s efforts to translate national climate ambitions into tangible improvements for communities.
These included developing multipurpose sponge parks that absorbed monsoon flash floods while providing green public spaces, as well as retrofitting social housing with rooftop solar installations and green features.
He said climate-proof social housing must protect vulnerable communities and remain accessible to those who needed it most.
“Adaptation is not a cost; it is our baseline for survival. From the UN-Habitat Assembly to Malaysia, our message is clear ... that is, let Antalya be the summit where promises turn into practice, policies turn into protection and ambition becomes action.
“The world no longer needs more rhetoric. What we need is to act to avert devastation, to accelerate immediate implementation and to achieve lasting urban transformation,” he said.
