National Policy on Climate Change.

To ensure climate-resilient development to fulfill national aspirations for sustainability, the Government of Malaysia adopted in 2009 the National Policy on Climate Change, providing a framework to mobilize and guide government agencies, industry, community as well as other stakeholders and major groups in addressing the challenges of climate change in a holistic manner. This nation-wide cross-sectoral document proposes balanced adaptation and mitigation measures for all sectors in order of enhancing global competitiveness and attaining environmentally sustainable socio-economic growth.
Main objectives of Policy are: (i) mainstreaming climate change through wise management of resources and enhanced environmental conservation resulting in strengthened economic competitiveness and improved quality of life; (ii) integration of responses into national policies, plans and programs to strengthen the resilience of development from arising and potential impacts of climate change; and (iii) strengthening of institutional and implementation capacity to better harness opportunities to reduce negative impacts of climate change.
To achieve the goals set, the Policy adopted a set of actions based on four basic principles applied to a number of strategic interventions, called strategic thrusts, to address national responses to the issue of climate change. The four principles on which the Policy is based are: (i) sustainability, (ii) conservation, (iii) coordination, and (iv) participation and common but differentiated responsibilities. While main strategic interventions deal with: (i) harmonization of existing policies; (ii) climate-resilient development through low carbon economy; (iii) enhancement of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE); (iv) knowledge-based decision making; (v) efficient communication and coordination among all stakeholders; and (vi) increment of awareness and community participation.
In particular, to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the Policy proposes to empower local communities in basic RE maintenance, especially in rural electrification including mini and micro hydroelectric schemes.
In order of increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the aim is to incorporate and facilitate implementation of climate friendly measures and technologies by strengthening the following: (i) Laws and regulations and their enforcement: (ii) Human resource development: (iii) Finance and incentives: (iv) Research and development: (v) Transfer of technology: and (vi) Outreach to relevant stakeholders. Other interventions deal with the development of multiple national climate and hydro-climate projection models for identifying vulnerabilities and assessing potential impacts of climate change together with balanced adaptation and mitigation measures to be integrated into development plans and promotion of RE and EE to reduce GHG emissions in the transportation sector.
As for the Governance, the Policy focuses on the necessity to establish an inter-ministerial and cross-sectoral committee to enable the implementation of climate change measures and to strengthen national data repository through periodic national inventory.