Although the government is “deeply committed to global climate action” in line with the Paris Agreement, it must also consider what Malaysia can realistically achieve as a developing economy, said Johari, who is also Malaysia’s plantations and commodities minister.
“We are due to prepare our new targets at COP30 [but] we’re struggling to [finalise] the figures…we need to do some balancing act here,” he said at the Securities Commission of Malaysia’s inaugural Climate Adaptation and Resilience Conference on Tuesday.
Countries are meant to submit revised NDCs every five years, but over 90 per cent missed this year’s February deadline. With COP30 host Brazil calling to update their 2035 targets ahead of COP30 next month, the number of updated submissions has risen to 62 countries, covering under a third of global emissions.
This includes China’s recent submission, under which it committed – for the first time – to slash emissions.
Malaysia last updated its NDC in July 2021 and later that year signed the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow, an initiative to cut 30 per cent of global methane emissions by 2030.
Johari told Eco-Business that the country is still on track to meet its goal of cutting carbon intensity against gross domestic product by 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. “We are now at 37.1 per cent [of emissions intensity], so there is no issue on that,” he said on the sidelines of the conference.
But he said that the process of announcing its updated climate targets will take time, as NRES is working with the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies to ensure that future commitments do not clash with its economic capacity.
“We are still a developing country; there’s a lot of things that we need to adjust to make sure that when we commit, we must deliver,” said Johari.
Malaysia is taking a “market-based approach to address climate change”, he said, referring to a National Carbon Market Policy which is still in the works that would provide “strategic policy direction towards the implementation of carbon pricing.”
Climate change bill next year
Last Friday, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that Malaysia will introduce a carbon tax for the hard-to-abate energy, iron and steel sectors in 2026, aligned with the carbon market policy as well as a long-awaited climate change bill. Details on the tax were scant.
Johari said he has asked the prime minister for more time to engage stakeholders, particularly corporates. At the Malaysia Carbon Market Forum 2025 on Wednesday, he said that would prefer to table the bill in the first parliament sitting of 2026, which typically starts in February.
“The reason why I’m requesting for him to delay the bill is because I need to do very detailed engagements with a lot of stakeholders. I want them to understand [the importance of the bill],” Johari said.
If businesses and local governments do not fully appreciate the significance of the climate change bill, Malaysia risks introducing an act that “only certain states will comply [with]”, he added. Johari said on Wednesday that he has spoken to leaders of the Securities Commission of Malaysia and stock exchange operator Bursa Malaysia regarding these planned engagements.
He cited the example of the country’s solid waste management act (Act 672), enacted in 2007 and adopted by only eight states so far, despite it being “a very noble act”. He told reporters that the government also wants to avoid a repeat of the public backlash against the Urban Renewal Act, a proposed law to facilitate urban redevelopment proposed in August.
“What I need is not so much [to convince] the public, but the companies and businesses that operate in Malaysia,’ he said. “It is not about penalising them through the carbon tax – it is more than that. We want to make sure that every aspect of the economy and development is sustainable.”
When asked by Eco-Business about the timeline for this engagement, Johari said, “I will try to do [the engagements] as fast as I can. It definitely cannot take too long.”
The bill will also provide legal grounding for mandatory climate-related reporting requirements, he said.
“The act will provide the legal framework for climate governance in Malaysia. We need reporting obligations (for corporate climate disclosures) that are governed by the act.”
“When you ask them to prepare audited [financial] accounts without delay, they do it because there is an Act [that compels them to],” said Johari. “Then you need an authority like the Securities Commission to govern this.”
A draft consultation paper inviting feedback on the climate change bill was published by the NRES ministry a year ago, at the time helmed by former minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.
Ahead of his resignation in May, Nik Nazmi that the climate change bill was close to being tabled to cabinet and presented in parliament. He had stepped down from the post in May due to party politics, with Johari taking over ministerial duties and functions in July.
