In an interview with FMT, Nik Nazmi said the climate change bill provides a clear framework on the types of industries the country wants to attract to meet its goal, especially in decarbonisation efforts.

He said the bill is being formulated jointly with the investment, trade and industry ministry.

He noted that the government has already begun to make the transition from a low-cost and low-wage economy to a high-value economy.

“That is the green economy that we are looking at. I think it is very crucial,” he said.

An initiative to introduce a climate change legislation was first mooted in 2018 shortly after Pakatan Harapan came to power but subsequently hit several snags.

Two years ago, Nik Nazmi, in explaining the decision to delay the drawing up of a climate change bill, said he did not want to “rush” the legislation.

In response to criticisms, he said he wanted a “comprehensive and impactful” bill rather than a “toothless” one.

But for Nik Nazmi, there is more in the fight against climate change than meets the eye.

In terms of economic impact, research has shown that a failure to address climate change can lead to an 11% drop in the gross domestic product of Southeast Asia by the end of the century.

But for Nik Nazmi, it does not just boil down to dollars and cents.

In his new book “Saving the Planet: Climate and Environmental Lessons from Malaysia and Beyond”, Nik Nazmi said the economic impact is just one-third of a triple planetary crisis.

The others are pollution and loss of biodiversity.

Climate change, he wrote, has now truly reached critical levels, noting that human induced global temperature rise has reached 1.1 degrees Celsius.

And while the economic consequences of the triple planetary crisis are real and often the most effective in getting governments as well as business to spring into action “we still do not get to the core of the issue”.

“We can only see things clearly when we realise that human beings are part of, not separate from, nature,” he added.