The Economy Ministry emphasised the need to develop and enforce the Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage Bill (CCUS Bill) and regulations related to the importation and permanent storage of carbon dioxide in offshore areas by 31 March 2025, to ensure Malaysia can seize long-term investment opportunities.
“The drafting of the CCUS Bill was implemented based on a whole-of-nation approach. The ministry created a governance structure for the national CCUS initiative to ensure that CCUS-related activities to be implemented are in line with the decision of the Cabinet.
“This governance structure consists of a steering committee, a technical committee and five focus groups is led by the Economy Ministry with members from various ministries, relevant departments and agencies, state government, academia and industry players,” said Deputy Economy Minister Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib.
She also mentioned that the ministry appointed the Global CCS Institute as a consultant to carry out a study titled ‘Malaysia’s CCUS Legal & Regulatory Framework Assessment and Comprehensive Study to ensure the formulation of the CCUS regulatory framework is in line with legislation and best practice at the international level.
A preliminary report from the consultant has compared legislation on CCUS from countries that have already implemented CCUS and already have a domestic legal framework such as Australia, the US, Canada and the European Union (EU).
“In general, this CCUS Bill has been drafted based on the best practices of CCUS at the international level and has taken into account the need for efficient risk management,” Hanifah continued.
In the process of enacting this CCUS Bill, she explained that the federal and state governments agreed that the power to legislate in relation to a treaty – agreement or convention to be enforced throughout the federation – is the power of the federal government under Article 76(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution.
The CCUS Bill is divided into 10 sections and contains 53 clauses that provide for the regulation of CCUS activities for each CCUS value chain from capture, transport, use and up to permanent storage activities of carbon dioxide.
She also said that the bill is an important component in ensuring that Malaysia benefits from investment as well as economic spillover from CCUS activities along the value chain.
“The CCUS industry is expected to create up to 200,000 new job opportunities a year during peak activity. This can stimulate the development of talent and skills related to green skills in Malaysia’s efforts to attract high-scale investment, especially in CCUS technology,” Hanifah added.
Citing a research by the Global CCS Institute, Hanifah said Malaysia is estimated to have a carbon dioxide storage capacity of 13.3 gigatonnes involving oil and gas fields that are no longer in use.
While a study by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia estimated that Malaysia has a storage capacity of 140 gigatonnes for storage sites in the form of saltwater reservoirs under the seabed.
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