On October 22, Frederik Paulus, Economic Advisor at REFSA spoke to BFM on Malaysia’s climate change commitments and what more needs to be done.
He opined that Malaysia is on the right track and that the government should continue to harness the green economy to aid the country’s recovery from the pandemic. He highlighted that Malaysia has natural advantages that it can leverage, e.g. expertise and experience with solar power; and more importantly, sectors in the green economy are a great way to create good jobs, that pay a living wage, and those jobs are sorely needed at this time.
Frederik also suggested policies that can be prioritised:
i) Investments in renewable energy, particularly solar power, are practically “shovel ready” and can therefore have an immediate positive impact on the economy;
ii) Urban farming, with its link to food security, and resulting reductions in externalities from transport;
iii) Waste management, recycling in particular, which is still a largely untapped market at the moment;
iv) Preparing a transition from internal combustion engines vehicles to electric vehicles, for example by kickstarting the installation of charging points;
To conclude, Frederik stressed adopting a “mission-oriented” framework, where the state acts as a catalyst and a venture capitalist of sorts, for the private sector to come up with the most efficient solutions.
Produced by: Shazana Mokhtar