COUNTRY:MALAYSIA. 

At COP31 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya, Malaysian Minister of Housing and Local Government Nga Kor Ming called on the global community to ensure secondary and intermediate cities have better access to climate finance. He stated that these communities face significant barriers to accessing direct, concessional loans and methodological support, making it difficult to protect vulnerable communities from flooding and the urban heat island effect. To address this issue, the minister outlined several key areas: reducing investment risks at the municipal level, empowering local authorities to develop shovel-ready projects, strengthening protection for the most vulnerable populations, and actively mobilizing innovative capital.

“We must empower local authorities to develop bankable, implementation-ready projects, while scaling up informal settlement upgrading and climate-proof social housing” — Nga Kor Ming

Nga Kor Ming expressed strong support for the Turkish SURFF (Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility) initiative, calling on international financial institutions to scale up the project. As an example of effective action, he cited Malaysia’s experience of creating multifunctional “sponge” parks that absorb floodwater and serve as green spaces, as well as the practice of retrofitting social housing with solar panels and other eco-friendly features. Concluding his speech, the minister emphasized that climate change adaptation is not just an expense item, but a basic requirement for survival, and called on world leaders to abandon empty rhetoric and move toward tangible action to secure funding and implement climate commitments directly at the local level.

“Adaptation is not a cost; it is our baseline for survival. From the UN-Habitat Assembly to Malaysia, our message is clear that is let Antalya be the summit where promises turn into practice, policies turn into protection and ambition becomes action.”
— Nga Kor Ming