00:00Malaysia trails behind even Haiti in the proportion of renewable energy in its power mix,
00:06a gap that should spur the country to harness more solar energy, according to a climate expert.
00:12Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate
00:16Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said he found it slightly striking
00:21that solar energy does not have greater prominence. There's huge potential here, I think,
00:27in Malaysia to create more of your electricity and more of your energy from renewables,
00:32particularly solar. Solar energy is the cheapest form of energy around the world. You could do a
00:38lot more of that in Malaysia. It would benefit your economy because it's lower cost energy,
00:43lower cost for businesses, lower cost for households. According to the latest data from the
00:48International Renewable Energy Agency, renewables account for 20% of Haiti's energy mix compared
00:54with roughly 18% for Malaysia. Ward attributed Malaysia's underperformance partly to its growing
01:00reliance on Indonesian coal. In 2023, Malaysia imported US$5.12 billion worth of coal briquettes,
01:08making it the seventh-largest coal importer globally, according to the Observatory of Economic
01:13Complexity. Indonesia supplies 58% of all coal imports. Ward said solar energy could help insulate
01:20Malaysia from the risks tied to global oil prices and geopolitical shifts that have mostly been driven
01:25by Donald Trump's return to the White House. It's a secure, secure form of electricity. You're not
01:32reliant on imports to generate your electricity. It will be Malaysian sun that powers your economy then.
01:40So I would hope that Malaysia at least explores this because I think the economics are very much more
01:46favourable than most other sources of electricity in the manner. And because of Malaysia's location,
01:52great potential for it to generate large amounts of electricity.
01:56I'm Donis Rajarrizza, FMT.
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