Abstract

At the international and national level, concerns for global warming have become a key concern for sustainable development to preserve our planet. Developing countries are increasingly striving to achieve industrialised status and encounters tremendous challenges along the way in coping with rising economic, population and energy growth demands resulting in increasing green house gas (GHG) emissions. At COP15, Malaysia made a voluntary commitment of up to 40% reduction in emissions intensity of GDP by 2020 as compared to 2005 levels subject to availability of technology and finance. This paper presents a comprehensive overview on the challenges facing developing countries on CO2 emission reduction using Malaysia as the context of the study. It covers an assessment of current energy demand and supply patterns, resultant GHG emissions, review of potential mitigation and adaptation options based on experiences from developed countries incorporating new technologies, measures and instruments from the demand and supply side perspective. It concludes with a discussion on the major challenges on energy policy instruments and mechanisms and the key agenda for action on climate change abatement.