(From left) Masyita Ismail, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry; Datuk Indera Dr Ahmad Sabirin Arshad, president and CEO of SIRIM Bhd; Ng Wei Wei, CEO of UOB Malaysia Bhd; Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid, deputy governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Datuk Abdul Rasheed Abdul Ghaffour, governor of BNM; Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change; Datuk Seri Dr Awang Adek Haji Hussin, chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC); Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak, president and CEO of Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd, Datuk Kamarudin Hashim, managing director of the SC Malaysia, Datuk Jessica Chew, deputy governor of BNM; Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, CEO of Bursa Malaysia. (Photo by Sam Fong/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): The Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3) launched a one-stop portal for small and medium enterprises (SME) and a RM1 billion portfolio guarantee scheme by the Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC) at the JC3 Journey to Zero Conference 2023 held in Sasana Kijang on Monday.

To further assist SME suppliers in adopting sustainability, the JC3 announced a partnership with Bursa Malaysia, where Bursa will deploy its Central Sustainability Intelligence (CSI) platform to support Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Greening Value Chain (GVC) Programme.

Additionally, JC3 introduced a pilot project to green industrial parks, and a new website for companies to access relevant resources, including its enhanced data catalogue on climate risks.

JC3 was established in 2019 to build climate resilience within the Malaysian financial sector, and is co-chaired by BNM and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). JC3’s members comprise senior officials from Bursa Malaysia and financial industry players.

The biennial conference, organised by JC3, brings together various stakeholders to discuss climate and nature finance.

The GVC programme was introduced by BNM and its partners in late 2022 to help Malaysian SMEs implement impactful changes through capacity building to measure, track and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Participating organisations and banks will offer technical advice and financing to GVC participants. More than 80 SMEs within the supply chain of four corporations are currently part of the programme.

Bursa’s CSI platform, meanwhile, was developed as a centralised repository for ESG disclosures and allows public-listed companies to consolidate and disclose ESG data in a standardised manner. It offers tools such as a carbon emission calculator and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures reporting module.

Under this collaboration with Bursa, users of the CSI platform are eligible for the GVC programme, and SMEs that are part of the GVC can leverage on the platform as a reporting tool.

JC3 also launched the ESG jump-start portal, which can be found in the new JC3 website, for SMEs to access foundational information to start their sustainability journey. This was developed by the JC3 SME Focus Group, which is co-chaired by BNM and UOB Malaysia.

The portal contains information helpful for SMEs, such as capacity building programs, certification schemes, national incentive schemes and other relevant tools offered by the financial industry, government agencies and other organisations to support wider access of financing for all SMEs.

In addition, JC3 announced a RM1 billion portfolio guarantee scheme by CGC in partnership with 18 participating banks. This is meant to encourage and ignite further industry and ESG financing initiatives in the future.

The new JC3 website is designed to be a one-stop resource site for all JC3 information. Users can find out more about JC3’s members and subcommittees, publications and achievements since its inception in September 2019.

The website also includes various resources like Malaysia’s national policies, containing soft copy documents of the Hydrogen Economy and Technology Roadmap, Malaysia’s National Energy Policy 2022-2040, New Industrial Plan 2030, and the National Energy Transition Roadmap.

Additionally, the site contains an enhanced Climate Data Catalogue, which serves as a source of reference for climate data relevant to use cases in the financial sector.

In total, the data catalogue contains 249 granular data items mapped to 399 data sources from 135 data providers. The 2023 Data Catalogue is more comprehensive than the first version issued in December 2022.

The green industrial parks project is organised in collaboration with BNM, SC, the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Economy, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, the Ministry of Local Government of Malaysia, Sirim and PLANMalaysia.

It is aimed at transitioning the management of industrial parks and operations of their tenant companies by adopting green solutions and climate-resilient infrastructure. This includes developing infrastructure such as integrated waste management, use of renewable energy, measurement, monitoring and reporting of GHG emissions and verification systems.

Green industrial parks are one of the flagship catalyst projects under the recently announced National Energy Transition Roadmap, where an integrated renewable energy zone will be established, encompassing an industrial park, zero-carbon city, residential development and data centre.

JC3 also launched a partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation to pilot the Green AgriTech programme, focusing on incorporating ESG principles in the agriculture sector.