Malaysia Energy Government Strategy

Throughout 2023, the first year of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government, Malaysia unveiled a cross-ministry climate strategy through a series of framework documents.  These documents outline missions and targets to help align public and private sector initiatives with national goals.  Renewable energy (RE), hydrogen, electric vehicles (EV), and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) will be central to the country’s energy transition.

Below are highlights from three essential documents published in 2023.

• The National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR): NETR Phase 1, covered in an earlier report, announced ten flagship projects.  NETR Phase 2 fleshed out the six levers of the national energy transition (i.e., energy efficiency, RE, hydrogen, bioenergy, green mobility, and CCUS) and details 2050 emissions reduction targets within each segment.  The roadmap also calls for establishing an interface platform with private energy service companies (ESCO) and democratizing the energy industry through a third-party access (TPA) framework.
• The New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP):  Malaysia’s 4th industrial master plan shifts its approach from centering on industrial sectors to focusing on four “Missions”.  Mission 3 (‘Push for Net Zero’) aims to achieve Net Zero manufacturing emissions as early as 2050.  It will do this by enhancing adoption schemes for energy efficiency and RE, increasing the availability of RE for industry, catalyzing EV and CCUS, and introducing carbon accounting and tax policies.
• Hydrogen Economy & Technology Roadmap (HETR): Malaysia aims to have a strong hydrogen supply chain, with exports to China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, generating more than MYR400 billion ($86 billion) in revenue by 2050.  The government will also promote the domestic use of hydrogen as a medium of energy storage and production to increase the share of clean energy in the country’s energy mix.

In 2024, the government is expected to release its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Roadmap.

U.S. firms with the right technologies and expertise will be able to participate in Malaysia’s energy transition.  If you represent a U.S. company and want to learn more or access the full documents above, please contact Commercial Specialist Mohan Gurusamy at office.kualalumpur@trade.gov.