(June 25): Malaysia needs to address its fuel subsidies before it introduces a carbon tax, as the nation holds discussions with the World Bank on how to implement a scheme to help curb emissions.
“We are subsidising our carbon,” Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said during an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Haslinda Amin and Avril Hong on Tuesday. Malaysia has been an export driven industrial economy “fuelled by blanket subsidies,” he added.
Malaysia has set a net-zero goal by 2050, removing most subsidies on diesel this month and vowing to target gasoline next. The finance ministry is leading government talks on how to set up a carbon tax, and are looking at hard to abate sectors such as steel, Nik Nazmi said.
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