This keynote address was delivered by Mr. Edward Vrkić, Resident Representative a.i. of UNDP Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam, at the National Climate Governance Summit 2025 organised by Climate Governance Malaysia.

7 April 2025

Distinguished guests, colleagues, and champions of climate action, 

It is an honour to join you at Malaysia’s most pivotal climate event, convened by the Climate Governance Malaysia (CGM). 

Thank you for the invitation to join this vital dialogue, one that underscores our shared commitment to safeguard our planet’s future. 

While I am relatively new to Malaysia, UNDP is not. 

UNDP Malaysia’s office was established 60 years ago.

It has been a foundational development partner for Malaysia, and principal partner in delivering climate action, biodiversity conservation, improved natural resource management and innovative financing instruments.
 

Celebrating CGM's Leadership 

At the outset, I would like to commend CGM for taking a leadership role in convening to address Malaysia’s intensifying climate challenges. 

Malaysia is a nation uniquely vulnerable to biodiversity loss and extreme weather. 
Your efforts, like UNDP’s, elevate local voices through initiatives like the National Climate Governance Summit (NCGS).

By integrating grassroots perspectives into global agendas, you ensure Malaysia’s environmental priorities are not just heard but harmonized with global action. 

This is more than progress – it is a blueprint for just, inclusive, and effective solutions. 

This year’s National Climate Governance Summit (NCGS 2025) with the theme of Transition Finance: The Foundation of the Transition Economy could not be timelier.

By centring transition finance as its theme, CGM has highlighted the most critical question facing climate action today. 

The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-change-induced disasters reminds us that climate resilience is not just an environmental necessity but a financial and economic imperative.

Yet, the financing gap to achieve net-zero targets, climate resilience, and inclusive development is vast – and growing.

Consider this. 

2023 and 2024 were years of record-breaking temperatures, devastating floods, and stark warnings from the IPCC that time is running out.

The ASEAN region – home to over 660 million people – is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. 

Estimates suggest that climate change could reduce ASEAN GDP by up to 11% by the end of the century without decisive mitigation and adaptation investments.

In 2023, developed countries provided and mobilized a total of USD 115.9 billion in climate finance for developing countries, exceeding the annual USD 100 billion goal for the first time.  

Despite this, current climate finance flows represent only about 1% of global GDP. 

To effectively address climate change, it is estimated that annual climate finance needs to increase to over USD 10 trillion each year from 2031 to 2050, necessitating a five-fold increase from current levels.

UNDP estimates approximately USD 5.9 trillion in annual climate investments is needed by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

However, in 2023, only USD 1.3 trillion was mobilized from public and private sources.

In ASEAN, the shortfall is proportionally worse. 

Southeast Asia needs USD 210 billion annually through 2030 to achieve its net-zero goals, yet actual flows are less than 12% of that target today.

Our modelling tells us, for every $1 invested in better climate proofing infrastructure, countries can avoid up to $4 in losses. 

Yet, adaptation finance still represents only approximately 5% of total climate finance flows required on current estimates. 

As Malaysia pivots from high-carbon technologies to sustainable alternatives, transition finance is the bridge between ambition and reality. 

The climate crisis demands rapid, and even radical, decarbonization and adaptation. 
But this will not happen overnight. 

Industries, workforces, and economies need predictable pathways to adapt sustainably.

Transition finance provides the scaffolding, unlocking capital for renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency upgrades, and sustainable infrastructure, all while ensuring continued economic growth, and with it, stability.

Without transition finance, we face a perilous choice of stagnation or chaos.

Stagnation, if industries cling to outdated models.

Chaos, if transitions are abrupt and exclusionary. 

But, with transition finance, we unlock innovation, derisk investments, and ensure progress is equitable. 

This makes sound economic sense.

It aligns financial flows with climate goals, ensuring no community is left behind as we pursue net-zero emissions and better insulate our people and economies. 

UNDP’s Commitment to Catalysing Capital and Commitment in Action

At UNDP, we recognise that mobilizing trillions – not billions – is essential. 

Through our Sustainable Finance Hub, we partner globally to rewire financial systems for sustainability.

In Malaysia, UNDP partners with institutions like Bank Negara Malaysia to green value chains through initiatives like the Greening Value Chain Playbook, to be launched during the ASEAN Financing Minister’s Meeting and pilot action for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), of which Malaysia is emerging as a leader. 

Under JC3 and in partnership with BPMB, UNDP is also partnering to provide impact advice and action for the Climate Finance Innovation Lab or CFiL.

UNDP is advancing nature financing via groundbreaking initiatives such Ecological Fiscal Transfer with the government of Malaysia and pioneering efforts like the Tiger Landscape Investment Fund, which will drive the use of blended finance models to de-risk nature-positive investments.

Regionally, our Climate Finance Network (CFN), with UK FCDO, unites finance ministries, regulators, and businesses to mobilize climate investments – from Indonesia’s Impact Fund to partnerships accelerating SDG-driven enterprises in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. 

Globally, UNDP’s partnership with ISO has produced the first international guidelines for SDG alignment (ISO/UNDP PAS 53002:2024), while our Impact Venture Hub empowers businesses to scale sustainable innovations. 
 

CGM's and UNDP: A Shared Vision

CGM’s focus on transition finance resonates with UNDP’s belief that finance is not just about money – it is about delivering fairer, wealthier and more sustainable societies. 

By supporting businesses and sectors in their net-zero journeys, we safeguard livelihoods while protecting the planet. 

This is the essence of a ‘just’ transition.

As with UNDP, CGM’s strength also lies in its people. 

Your board, council, and team embody expertise, vision, and unwavering commitment. 

We are natural partners. 

From corporate governance to climate science, your diverse leadership bridges the gap between business imperatives and ecological urgency. 

This fusion of disciplines positions CGM not just as a thought leader, but as a ‘doer,’ shaping policies that are as pragmatic as they are visionary.

Like UNDP, CGM understands that collaboration fuels innovation.

Your cross-sector partnerships – uniting government, businesses, and civil society – are a testament to the power of collective action.

By aligning sustainability with business resilience, you prove that climate action is not a cost but an investment.

One that safeguards both ecosystems and economies.

No single entity can derisk climate innovation alone.

The public and private sectors must unite, leveraging a suite of policy, finance and programmatic tools at scale. 

Here, CGM and NCGS are already leading – championing transparent financial disclosures and influencing investment flows across Malaysia and ASEAN.

Your work ensures that climate considerations are embedded in every boardroom and policy discussion.

As your partner, UNDP brings to the table globally informed technical expertise resting on decades of experience delivering billions in assistance and applying a lens that seeks scale, convergence and integrated, ‘whole of nation’ solutions. 

It is this approach that will ensure Malaysia’s climate finance ecosystem thrives. 

In concluding, I would like us to shape the current narratives that suggest climate action is a burden.

It is not. 

It is our greatest opportunity to reimagine economies, restore ecosystems, and redefine resilience for the greatest number of people in growingly uncertain times.

As Malaysia charts its course toward a low-carbon future, let NCGS 2025 be remembered as the moment we moved from pledges to pipelines - of capital, innovation, and collective will.

UNDP is proud to stand with Malaysia and CGM on this mission. 

Together, we will ensure transition finance isn’t just a theme but the ‘new norm.’

In closing, I wish you all a summit as impactful as our collective aspirations.

Terima kasih.