Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim launched the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) on 29 August 2023, with Putrajaya allocating a RM2 billion “seed fund” as an energy transition facility.
The National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) is a strategic plan to facilitate a country's transition to more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources, transitioning to a low-carbon economy and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The roadmap focuses on initiatives such as:
energy efficiency,
renewable energy,
hydrogen,
bioenergy,
green mobility, and
carbon capture.
It emphasises the need for collaboration and a whole-of-nation approach to achieve the goals. The roadmap also highlights the importance of managing the energy transition effectively, considering its impact on jobs and ensuring a fair and inclusive transition for all.
Here's a concise overview:
Purpose and Significance: The NETR is a pivotal tool for accelerating green and sustainable growth in a nation. It is crucial in guiding the energy sector toward sustainability and reducing its environmental impact.
Contents: A typical NETR comprises a series of initiatives, policies, and projects to promote renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and other sustainable practices in the energy sector.
Malaysia's NETR: Malaysia, for instance, launched its NETR, Phase 1, on July 27, 2023, with a strong focus on transforming the economy and energy landscape towards sustainability.
International Perspective: The concept of a National Energy Transition Roadmap is part of a global movement towards reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change.
Malaysia's National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) outlines several vital initiatives to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. These initiatives include:
Facilitating conditions to foster innovation and new technology applications to create technological advantages across the energy sector. This includes scaling up significant energy infrastructure investments to safeguard energy security, improve energy access, and enhance environmental sustainability.
Negotiating and introducing a transboundary CO2 regulatory agreement encompassing provisions on transboundary movement and storage of carbon, liability, and cost-sharing. The Ministry of Economy also plans to promote local utilisation of CO2 in industry.
Scaling up sustainable finance literacy, awareness programs, and technical capacity building targeting SMEs. This includes expediting capital investments in high-risk, early-stage energy ventures in suitable areas. The roadmap also plans to roll out a carbon pricing mechanism.
Establishing a physical enabler to act as the market aggregator, developing regulations for implementing a renewable energy exchange hub and cross-border renewable energy trading, and monetising excess power generated through bi- or multi-lateral power trading arrangements with neighbouring countries [4].
Focusing on six energy transition levers that will unlock economic opportunities and reduce the impact on the environment. These levers include energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydrogen, bioenergy, green mobility, and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage.
Launching a major energy efficiency retrofit initiative amongst government buildings, which includes identifying energy-inefficient public buildings and developing a medium to long-term energy efficiency government building retrofit program.
In summary, the National Energy Transition Roadmap is a strategic guide for a country to transition its energy sector towards sustainability and reduce its environmental impact by adopting renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.
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