As the month-long public consultation for Malaysia’s highly anticipated climate change bill comes to a close, civil society representatives and climate advocates have highlighted gaps in the draft law, with many pushing for the bill to emphasise Indigenous rights protection and ensure that local communities are included in discussions on renewable energy projects.
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At a webinar organised by Malaysian non-governmental coalitions and livestreamed on WWF-Malaysia’s Facebook page last Friday, ahead of the 4 November consultation deadline for the draft bill, representatives of civil society groups also wanted biodiversity protection and environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes to be strengthened. [Note: The deadline has been extended to 18 November.]
On free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), Indigenous rights activist Adrian Lasimbang argued that the issue should be addressed adequately by the upcoming legislation as it has a direct impact on Indigenous peoples and their land rights.
FPIC ensures that Indigenous peoples are afforded rights to give or withhold consent to projects that may affect them or their territories.
Lasimbang, who is the executive director of Right Energy Partnership with Indigenous Peoples (REP) which has been advocating for inclusion and co-leadership of renewable energy projects, said many large-scale projects, such as solar farms and hydro dams, as well as mining projects, often target Indigenous lands and do not have FPIC from local communities.
“They [referring to companies behind the projects] just bulldoze without approval and when people start protesting, they are arrested and prosecuted,” he said.
Examples that Lasimbang gave include large-scale hydroelectric dam projects in Sarawak that have displaced local communities. A more recent case is the upcoming 300-megawatt hydroelectric dam being constructed in Nenggiri, Kelantan, which will displace more than 1,000 Indigenous people.
Lasimbang is also co-founder of TONIBUNG, a social enterprise based in Penampang, Sabah. Beyond protecting FPIC rights, benefit sharing is also important in energy projects, he said.
“Indigenous people’s knowledge and solutions should also be taken into account…What we need to see in the bill is an inclusive solution. It should not just talk about how to mitigate for climate change, but also look at adaptation strategies that can ensure the local communities have better conditions.”
In an earlier interview with Eco-Business, Minister of Natural Resources and Sustainability Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad suggested that matters such as the right to a clean environment would belong under a separate bill or be considered under a constitutional amendment. “Climate change and the right to a clean environment overlap, but they are not necessarily the same thing,” he said.
However, Lasimbang believes that the climate change bill must recognise the contributions of civil society, including Indigenous peoples, towards climate action. The government should create a permanent space or platform via the bill for citizens to suggest initiatives that can support climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, he suggested.
Youths United for Earth (YUFE) volunteer Thenmoli Segaran had similar concerns, and noted that the current draft bill places limited emphasis on FPIC for carbon projects too. She referred to the need for continuous consent by local communities throughout the lifecycle of carbon projects, which can typically span decades. This is aligned with industry best practices recommended by the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network.
Segaran also highlighted how biodiversity protection is not adequately addressed in the draft bill, even though Malaysia is party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and a signatory to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
There is no mention of biodiversity or FPIC in the text of the consultation paper.
Segaran said that given Malaysia’s commitments to biodiversity protection and conservation, these issues should also be considered by the ministry.
Reforming processes for EIA
Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) also came under the spotlight on the webinar. Earlier this year, environmental watchdog Rimbawatch highlighted that a lack of transparency over EIAs in Malaysia has hindered public access to information about the full impacts of projects such as timber and palm oil concessions.
Kiu Jia Yaw, a sustainability lawyer and co-chair of Malaysian CSO-SDG Alliance, a coalition of non-government organisaitons championing sustainable development, also spoke at the webinar about the need for law reform regarding EIAs for urban development projects.
Responding to an audience member’s question on poor urban planning where projects are approved by local councils without scrutinising their environmental impacts, he said that EIA laws and public consultation need to be improved significantly to avoid tokenism.
“It is a deep and serious problem. There are many facets to urban development; one is the EIA. The laws around how EIAs are done really need to be reformed.”
EIAs are currently a requirement for development projects under a separate law, the Environmental Quality Act 1974. Nik Nazmi told Eco-Business that the ministry is planning for a “thorough, substantive revision” of that act.
Kiu said that access to information on new projects, such as their cost-benefit analysis and impact on nature, are not always available and that there is an urgent need to improve public access to information.
He also said that public safety surrounding the freedom to engage in urban development projects should be ensured, protecting people from being prosecuted when they voice out their concerns.
Malaysian Youth Delegation’s (MYD) climate adaptation working group coordinator Shameeta Masilamany called for more youth participation in the consultation process. MYD and several other youth organisations, such as Kelab Belia Prihatin Malaysia, are members of the enviornment ministry’s consultative panel on climate change.
Shameeta pointed out that young people are underrepresented in policy spaces, and public consultation for the climate change bill is a good opportunity to represent youth perspectives and interests. Young people are disproportionately affected by climate change, face climate anxiety and stress as well as displacement and health risks, she added.
“I want to stress that this is one of the instances where we can have a potentially public-driven legislative framework, if it is implemented well,” she said.
In late August, South Korea’s constitutional court became the first in Asia to rule that government climate action is insufficient, following four climate litigation cases brought forward by citizen plaintiffs, of which a third were children or teenagers.
The court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, who argued that their fundamental rights were violated due to a lack of sufficient protection against climate change, mandating the government to revise its climate action implementation plan.
