COP29: EVERY COUNTRY SHOULD DEVELOP AN ENERGY TRANSITION PLAN TO ACHIEVE TANGIBLE RESULTS - NGA

From Samantha Tan Chiew Tieng

BAKU (Azerbaijan), Nov 21 (Bernama) -- Every country should develop and implement a detailed energy transition plan to reduce its carbon footprint and address the global climate crisis to achieve tangible results.

This was the proposal put forth by Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming during the high-level forum on funding for climate change action at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Nga said he also shared Malaysia's commitment under the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), which sets an ambitious target of 70 percent renewable energy shares by 2050 that play a significant role in reducing carbon footprint.

The NETR, a blueprint for a sustainable energy landscape, is projected to boost Malaysia's gross domestic product from RM25 billion in 2023 to RM220 billion by 2050 while creating 310,000 jobs.

The minister suggested that the United Nations take the lead in establishing a permanent secretariat to develop a comprehensive master plan for the global stage, complete with measurable key performance indicators and a clear roadmap to improve coordination.

"We cannot keep repeating what we are doing and still hope to solve the problem. Everyone knows that (climate change) is serious. There is a reason why it is not enough to depend on the government. You have to take a 4P approach - people, public, and private partnerships - to show that climate change is not a country’s problem per se.

"Climate change transcends beyond boundaries and the very survival of humanity is at stake," he said.

Nga said that while the world committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the 2016 Paris Agreement, the current climate crisis shows that we are way off the path.

Therefore, he said there is a need to reevaluate creditworthiness benchmarks as green financing should be given priority to ensure developing countries implement more such projects.

"It is time for action. We already have COP 29 (and) everyone should ask the question - the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016 by 196 countries. It’s been eight years since. How much has it achieved? It's time to self-reflect and call for an action plan," he said.

Sharing Malaysia's commitment to sustainable urbanisation, Nga expressed his vision to develop and upgrade 1,000 Taman Awam MADANI (public parks) over the next 10 years as part of the environmental adaptation plan.

Furthermore, he said the Housing and Local Government Ministry is committed to rolling out the latest Program Residensi Rakyat (PRR) next year, incorporating climate resilience features to ensure public housing is more sustainable.

He added that this aligns with Malaysia's broader commitment to combat climate change and promote sustainable development.

Nga stated that under the 12th Malaysia Plan, the ministry aims to deliver 500,000 affordable housing units by the end of next year, having already achieved 80 percent, or 443,000 units, as of September 2024.

"We still need to build an additional 50,000 units, but I am confident we will meet this target by the end of next year. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be the first prime minister to achieve the affordable housing target under the Malaysia Plan," he said.

-- BERNAMA