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Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia near the equator within the typical tropical climatic zone. The efficient use of energy is vital due to the dependency on fossil resources that are being exhausted, which ultimately cause CO 2 emissions. Economic development and population growth are deemed to affect the growing energy demand in the country. Therefore, sustainability, energy security, and climate change are crucial challenges for the power sector in Malaysia. The aforementioned issues can be tackled with energy efficient measures in the building sector. Buildings in Malaysia consume 14.3% of the overall energy and 53% of only electrical energy is being consumed in residential and commercial sectors. Therefore, energy efficiency in buildings is crucial in order to reduce the energy use and improve the local environmental sustainability. This paper discusses a review on the building energy scenario, the policy perspectives, building energy efficiency programs along with landmark buildings and their characteristics. Besides, the potential of renewable energy resources in buildings and various prospective issues and challenges faced by the country have also been discussed. The significant review content thus benefits researchers, scientists and practitioners for a better understanding on energy efficiency and the sustainable measures that have been so far taken. The review also puts forward some actions to promote building energy efficiency and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palm oil milling process produces excessive amount of palm oil mill effluent (POME). Conventionally, POME is treated anaerobically to remove organic pollutant which produces biogas. Ideally, biogas is recovered to reduce the carbon footprint of palm oil production. However, more often than not the biogas is released freely to the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). This paper demonstrates the Malaysia’s experiences and endeavors in biogas capture and utilization under the Economic Transformation Programme. It highlights some of the essential technological, financial and institutional elements put in place gearing towards a nationwide biogas implementation. Biogas captured is a proven source of renewable energy that can contribute to the nation’s energy mix and sustainable development. Its implementation has been realized and strengthened in recent years through private commitment and government support in the form of several financial schemes and policies. This initiative across the nation targeting GHG emissions reduction is by and large one of the most responsive long term approaches in continuously improving the environmental performance of the oil palm industry to ensure continued market access to countries imposing more stringent palm oil sustainability requirements. The hardship, pain and valuable lessons learned in this national development could be informative for many other palm oil-producing countries in addressing similar sustainability issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]