Malaysia’s energy transition and readiness towards attaining net zero: review of the potential, constraints, and enablers

As Malaysia confronts complex challenges of meeting growing energy demands and reducing carbon emissions, the RE transition has become a critical focus for achieving a low-carbon future. This review paper comprehensively evaluates energy transition roadmaps, journal articles, legislative acts, policies, and government initiatives about Malaysia’s commitment towards attaining net zero. The study underscores the pivotal role of collaboration among civil society, government entities, private sectors, and international partners in propelling Malaysia towards a cleaner national energy system. Based on the SWOT-PESTEL analysis, the key findings from this review paper reveal that while Malaysia’s RE transition benefits from supportive policies, economic incentives, and technological advancements, challenges such as financial barriers, public engagement, and regulatory gaps must be addressed. To attain net zero emissions in Malaysia, policy implications are suggested in this paper promoting economic shifts to RE, regulating urban and financial practices for environmental benefits, enhancing forest conservation, investing in energy storage and grid infrastructure, optimising cross-border energy planning, centralising biomass logistics, adopting energy efficiency measures, expanding CCUS technologies, developing decentralised EV charging stations powered by RE, and more. This review paper contributes to the discourse on Malaysia’s energy transition and is a valuable reference for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders in the energy sector of Malaysia.