Speaking at a webinar hosted by the United Nations Development Programme to mark World Environment Day tomorrow, Treasury deputy chief secretary Zakiah Jaafar said it is dedicated to help attain Malaysia’s sustainable development goals (SDG) and strengthen the green economy.

She said that while the Covid-19 crisis was on the forefront of everyone’s minds, “we are also facing a crisis of sorts in terms of biodiversity laws and climate change, both of which have no vaccine or quick fix to remedy the situation”.

Zakiah said that looking at Malaysia’s recent progress towards achieving its SDGs, while socio-economic indicators were strong, progress towards those relating to the environment had been slow.

“It is timely then that we give greater focus to SDG 13 on climate action, SDG 14 on life below water and SDG 15 regarding life on land.”

She said this agenda would be strengthened in the upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan to spur more robust and comprehensive policies.

According to national budget director Johan Mahmood Merican, one such example has been the Ecological Fiscal Transfer Programme that was first introduced in 2019 and expanded in the most recent budget to RM70 million.

This scheme allows local and state governments to be reimbursed by the federal government for projects or initiatives that fit certain criteria related to preservation of natural resources or wildlife conservation.

However, he said the implementation was not without its challenges, as the RM70 million in reimbursements, once divided among the states, was at times not enough of an incentive for states that relied heavily on logging or mining-related income.

“Perhaps more study needs to be done on what the scale needs to be to make it a real incentive, or alternatives to motivate the states to preserve and safeguard more of their land mass,” he said.