Emissions in Malaysia grew by 18% between 2008 and 2017.

Malaysia’s key emitting sector is the energy sector, accounting for 75% of total GHG emissions excluding LULUCF. Within this sector, power accounts for the largest share (30%) of emissions. Electricity generation is emissions intensive, with 45% of power generated from coal and 37% from natural gas.⁵ Other GHG emissions from the energy sector are from: transport (17%), fugitive emissions (15%), and industry energy use (10%).

The second largest contributor to emissions is the waste sector with 13% of GHG emissions excluding LULUCF. The largest subsector in waste emissions is industrial waste water, mainly related to palm oil mill effluent (POME).⁶

Industry GHG emissions have seen high growth in recent years, (up 34% from 2010 to 2017), and growth is to a large extent related to cement demand.⁶

¹ Malaysia Government. Report on Peninsular Malaysia Generation Development Plan 2020 (2021 – 2039). (2021).

² The Edge Markets. Environment ministry to develop LT-LEDS for UNFCCC consideration. The Edge Markets. (2021).

³ Global Forest Watch. Malaysia Interactive Forest Map & Tree Cover Change Data. (2021).

⁴ WWF. Deforestation Fronts, Drivers and Responses in a Changing World. (WWF, 2021).

⁵ IEA. Malaysia. International Energy Agency. (2021).

⁶ Ministry of Environment and Water. Malaysia Third Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC. (2020).

⁷ Greenpeace. Southeast Asia Power Sector Scorecard.(2020).

⁸ British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce. BMCC Sector Report 2018/2019: Oil, Gas & Energy. (2018).

⁹ Susskind, L. et al. Breaking Out of Carbon Lock-In: Malaysia’s Path to Decarbonization. Front. Built Environ. 6, 21 (2020). doi:10.3389/fbuil.2020.00021/full

¹⁰ KeTTHA. Green Technology Master Plan Malaysia 2017-2030. (2017).

¹¹ Mustapa, S. I. & Bekhet, H. A. Analysis of CO2 emissions reduction in the Malaysian transportation sector: An optimisation approach. Energy Policy 89, 171–183 (2016).

¹² Malaysia Government. Malaysia Third National Communication and Second Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC. (2018).

¹³ Using Global Warming Potential AR4.

¹⁴ While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches which developed countries will need to implement in order to counterbalance their remaining emissions and reach net zero GHG are not considered here due to data availability.

¹⁵ LULUCF emissions are projected to be -227 MtCO₂e in 2030 following a business-as-usual scenario reported in Malaysia’s Second Biennial Report.

¹⁶ As stated in the NDC. However, Malaysia participated in the Clean Development Mechanism and Voluntary Carbon Market, but these are not accounted as national mitigation actions as noted in the Biennial Report 3.

¹⁷ Fuel-efficient vehicles is defined as hybrid, electric vehicles and alternatively fuelled vehicles such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen and fuel cell.

¹⁸ The total financial support required totals USD 71,900,000, in additional to technical and capacity building support.

¹⁹ In some of the analysed pathways, the energy sector assumes already a certain amount of carbon dioxide removal technologies, in this case bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS).