Malaysia announces 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025)

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri on September 27, 2021, announced the latest national five-year plan, the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (hereinafter “the Plan”). The Plan focuses on three main themes: (1) resetting the economy, (2) strengthening Security, wellbeing and inclusivity, and (3) advancing sustainability. Of these, Theme (3) advancing sustainability provides matters related to the environment and chemicals in its Chapters 8 and 9. Specifically, the Plan proposes diverse policy measures including the introduction of EPR regulations on e-waste, a feasibility study on carbon pricing and the enactment of new laws and regulations on chemicals management.

The Plan can be downloaded from the following URL.
https://rmke12.epu.gov.my/en

The outline of the Plan is as follows:

Climate change and energy

• Conduct a feasibility study on carbon pricing, such as carbon tax and the Emission Trading Scheme.
• Review incentives provided to local manufacturers to produce green vehicles and the purchase of these vehicles by consumers.
• Encourage adoption of fuel economy standards to increase fuel efficiency for new vehicles.
• Expand the B20 biodiesel programme that contains 20% palm methyl ester in stages and introduce the B30 programme at the end of the Plan.
• Regulate the use of energy by high-intensity consumers in the industrial and commercial sectors through the introduction of energy conservation act.

Circular economy and waste management

• Develop relevant policies, legislation and economic instruments to facilitate the transition to the circular economy.
• Review the relevant policies and legislation to incorporate eco-design requirements, including the use of recycled materials.
• Introduce a new regulation on household e-waste to implement the EPR for e-waste, covering other types and streams of waste, particularly packaging materials and single-use plastics.
• Develop a comprehensive database for all types of waste.
• Construct integrated waste management facilities. This will enable treatment of about 95% of waste and only 5% will be disposed at sanitary landfills.
• Review existing legislation, including the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and the Customs Act 1967, to control waste imports and exports.
• Discourage single-use products, including plastics and packaging materials in eateries and at public events.
• Construct integrated scheduled waste treatment and disposal facilities to minimize illegal dumping and increase the recycling rate of scheduled waste to 35% by end of 2025.

Chemical substances

• Establish a dedicated task force to coordinate and oversee the overall management of chemical and hazardous substances, from the production to disposal stages.
• Review existing legislation including the Environmental Quality Act of 1974, , the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 and the Poison Act 1952.
• Enact new legislation and make the notification and reporting of production, import, export, utilisation and management of chemical substances mandatory under the new legislation.
• Ban the import and export of selected mercury-containing products.
• Phase out the use of mercury and its compounds in manufacturing processes as well as the use of environmentally harmful pesticides and toxic chemicals.

Pollution Prevention

• Review the Environmental Quality Act of 1974 and enhance existing regulations, master plans and guidelines while introduce new ones.
• Undertake studies on the effectiveness of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the introduction of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

Water

• Revise several existing laws to regulate emerging pollutants and increase penalties based on the polluter-pays principle.
• Carry out a study on Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to determine the loading capacity of river segments.
• Enhance connections to existing regional sewage treatment plants to control sewage pollution.
• Build constructed wetlands (CWs) to treat wastewater and water collected in retention ponds.
• Build recovery centers to manage, treat, and convert sludge.
• Build an integrated wastewater treatment plants in newly established eco-industrial parks.
• Scale up the use of water-saving equipment labelled under Water Efficient Product Labelling Scheme (WEPLS) in government premises and domestic and industrial users.
• Consider fiscal incentives to encourage usage of water-efficient products.