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KUALA LUMPUR, 14 April 2025: Anchored in a shared vision to accelerate Malaysia’s climate ambitions, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today formalised two key partnerships with Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad (BPMB) and Amanah Lestari Alam (ALAM).
The partnership with BPMB marks a key step in unlocking sustainable finance for climate and nature-positive investments through the Climate Finance Innovation Lab (CFIL) — a sector-led initiative spearheaded by BPMB under the Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3) which is co-chaired by BNM and SC. The CFIL aims to accelerate the development of innovative and forward-thinking climate finance instruments, such as blended finance and impact investment, which leverage private-public partnerships to drive climate action at scale.
Under the partnership, UNDP will provide strategic advisory on lab design and impact measurement, drawing on end-to-end technical capabilities and experience across policy and regulatory fields to mobilise financing for climate action.
From top: Ms. Kanni Wignaraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific; Datuk Ali Tan Sri Abdul Kadir, Chairman of ALAM (bottom left) and Joel Khaw, BPMB’s head of MIND and Sustainability (bottom right) giving their remarks at the MOU signing ceremony.
“Globally, UNDP brings over US$3 billion in concessional and grant financing across 140 countries, working with governments and the private sector to scale climate action and sustainable development. Initiatives such as the Climate Promise, Climate Aggregation Platform, and SDG Venture Scaler showcase how policy, capital, and innovation can converge to deliver transformational results.
“At the regional level, the Climate Finance Network (CFN) — established with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — brings together finance ministries, regulators, civil society, and the private sector. Malaysia’s CFIL is already benefitting from this regional ecosystem of knowledge and collaboration,” said Kanni Wignaraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.
“The case for making these investments is compelling. Investing in climate action is not only an environmental imperative but also an economic and social opportunity that yields substantial benefits across multiple sectors. BPMB’s mandate is to deliver impact capital for national development and to scale up financial flows towards Malaysia’s transition. In line with this mandate, and in collaboration with UNDP, we’re strengthening the CFIL to build a pipeline of investable climate and nature projects. This includes financing models for sustainable agriculture, the circular economy, and biodiversity — areas critical to Malaysia’s transition,” said Mohamed Nazri Omar, Interim Group Chief Executive Officer of BPMB.
In parallel, the second Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between UNDP and ALAM — a foundation established by BPMB to shift Malaysians’ mindsets and behaviours on the environment — marks the next phase of the Youth Environment Living Labs (YELL) initiative.
“YELL has shown that when young people are entrusted with resources and responsibility, they deliver impact. This next phase will deepen collaboration with local universities, advance R&D for climate innovation, and create pathways for private sector financing to scale youth-led solutions for climate and biodiversity,” said Wan Faizah Che Din, Chief Executive Officer of ALAM.
YELL has become a flagship platform for youth empowerment in climate action, reaching over 1.83 million youth through various platforms and directly impacting over 4,500 young Malaysians since 2022 — 62% of them young women — and engaging more than one million people through social outreach and citizen science campaigns. A key feature of the extended partnership includes creating innovation sandboxes and knowledge hubs focused on biodiversity and green skills development.
Both MOUs signal UNDP’s broader commitment to supporting Malaysia’s climate ambitions, particularly as the country assumes the ASEAN Chairmanship. With partners such as Government, Bank Negara, Securities Commission, BPMB and ALAM, UNDP will codesign and collectively deliver at scale, high-impact climate and nature financing initiatives and support Malaysia’s next generation of climate and nature financing solutions.
