Nik Nazmi calls for increased allocations to empower Environment Department in Budget 2025

The Star

Budget 2025 must allocate more to empowering the Environment Department (DOE) to better tackle environmental offenders, said Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.  Speaking to reporters on Thursday (Oct 10), the Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister stated that with sufficient funding, Malaysia could achieve net zero emissions ahead of its 2050 target and emerge as a leader in sustainability within Southeast Asia.   Nik Nazmi also stressed the importance of elevating the Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Progressive Regulatory Framework, initiated by the Economics Ministry, to the Asean level.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/ync3s8we  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00The net zero target, you have said that you are bringing it forward. So 2050, how feasible

00:07is that, especially with the sudden rapid climate differences? As you have said, we

00:14have only 62% of the rice yield of previous years. So how is that feasible?

00:20It's a big challenge, but I think at the Climate Action Council, chaired by Prime Minister

00:27a few months back, it was decided that previously our target was as early as 2050, but that

00:34does not give a firm answer. And we believe that we needed a definite answer, a definite

00:40date. It can be slightly later, we've seen other countries as well. But we think, again

00:46as I think Wajib Rafizi mentioned, we have been blessed with enormous resources, although

00:52we know that we are a small contributor, but we think that we want to take the responsibility

00:57and show the ambition that we can be a beacon of sustainability in Southeast Asia. There

01:04will be a lot of public and private money that is needed, there will be a lot of adjustments

01:10that are needed, but we also, as you mentioned, because we realise that there needs to be

01:15a lot of bold action due to the severity of the climate crisis. So I think that's why

01:21we decided to take that bold step. The harder part is obviously to translate this into actions.

01:28But we've seen, not only NETR, we've also started with retargeting our subsidies with

01:33electricity tariffs, with diesel prices and other policies. So I think that we are in

01:40the right momentum to do so, to achieve those changes.

01:43What is it in the Budget 2025 for this?

01:47Budget 2025, I think we will of course wait for the final announcement from the Prime

01:54Minister, but in our discussions with MOF, we looked at having a new mindset as well

01:59to look at the Department of Environment. The Department of Environment is the Environmental

02:05Quality Act, EQA, is 50 years old. It came from a different time. We have upgraded the

02:11penalties, the imprisonment and all that, which is all well and good, but we need to

02:16ensure that DOE can be truly equipped and empowered to face and to truly protect our

02:22environment. And there's also a higher expectation from the public. So we believe that we can

02:27look at a new model to empower DOE, which we hope that will be detailed out in the Budget

02:35as well as looking at RMK13. So I think that's a main part of it.

02:41Then the other part is also finalising the National Carbon Market, because we need that

02:47to help us to meet our goals with regards to our carbon emissions and to unlock the

02:52value of our natural assets, natural forests, as well as, you know, we have Ministry of

03:00Economics also doing CCUS. So I think most importantly, we are also looking at raising

03:07this at an ASEAN level, because we believe that that comes with scale and volume when

03:12we talk about ASEAN. That's bigger than Malaysia.

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