KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 12): The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES) aims to table the National Climate Change Bill in the next Parliament session, which is scheduled from Oct 5 to Dec 8.
Speaking to The Edge Malaysia at the Malaysia Green Building Council’s (malaysiaGBC) Cities Climate Connect 2026 conference on Wednesday, NRES Deputy Minister Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said the bill has gone through the Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia and will be presented again to the Cabinet before being tabled in the next Parliament session.
“Let's say we pass it this session, then it will be implemented next year. It will take perhaps six to nine months. But what is important is that we get the framework right,” Syed Ibrahim said.
Commenting on concerns of prolonged delays to the tabling of the bill, which could possibly affect investor confidence, Syed Ibrahim said, “Carbon tax is actually [what] hinders it a bit. For now, the priority is the bill itself, which contains a lot of push for a greener, sustainable environment”.
Meanwhile, also present at the conference, malaysiaGBC president Serina Hijjas revealed that the MS 1525, which is the Malaysian Standard for energy efficiency and use of renewable energy for non-residential buildings, is going through several upgrades to tighten up certain guidelines.
“The Malaysian Standards Board have their own committees, and under MS 1525, they have a whole group of academics and people in industry. malaysiaGBC is lucky to be entering this year into the MS 1525 board and all of us are basically looking at how to improve and fine-tune the standards a little bit.”
For context, the MS 1525 was last reviewed in 2019.
According to Serina, some guidelines that are being reviewed this time around include facade performance requirements, recognition of sunfoil use, as well as more passive design elements.
“When you start to do a building that's energy efficient, look at passive design first, and then you start to put what systems go in there. And all the systems that we are asking for look like it's achievable to get 45% to 50% reduction. So the MS 1525 is written in exactly that same passive design [mindset], then all the mechanical systems, facade systems and all the rest of it comes in,” she added.
Serina revealed that the board will introduce landscape and urban greenery standards to the latest MS 1525, which will be released by the end of the year.
To be held over two days from Aug 12 to 13, the Cities Climate Connect with the theme “Where Sustainability and Innovation Converge” features four forum sessions, namely the Climate Action Forum, Circular Built Environment Forum, Urban Resilience Forum and Future Cities Forum, as well as exhibitions and the malaysiaGBC Leadership in Sustainability Awards 2026.