FROM POLICY TO COMMUNITY ACTION IN LOW CARBON DEVELOPMENT IN KUALA LUMPUR: A NARRATIVE REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJIREV.824001Keywords:
Low Carbon Development, Community Participation, Urban Governance, Climate Policy, Kuala LumpurAbstract
Cities are now at the center of climate in a nation like Malaysia as it moves towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Kuala Lumpur, being both the national capital and the main economic center, plays an essential role in illustrating the way in which international and national climate commitments are interpreted and practiced on the local level. Even with properly laid-down low-carbon policies and planning tools, it is challenging to maintain significant community engagement due to the design of governance, institutional assumptions, as well as the real world that urban communities face on a day-to-day basis. This narrative review analyzes the translation of low-carbon development strategies into community-level action in Kuala Lumpur, with special reference made to the issue of positioning participation into formal policy frameworks. Additionally, this narrative review summarizes peer-reviewed literature and essential policy papers on low-carbon development and community involvement in Malaysia. The database used to identify all academic papers published within the last 10 years (2015-2025) was Scopus, and a background search was conducted with regard to the information on the aspects of the policy evolution. Following this, the documents of the national and city governments were examined to seek the entrenchment of participation in the systems of low-carbon governance in Kuala Lumpur. Findings reveal that Malaysia has developed a policy architecture relating global climate pledges to life in the city with the help of such tools as the National Policy on Climate Change 2.0 (NCCP 2.0), the National Low Carbon Cities Masterplan (NLCCM), the Kuala Lumpur Low Carbon Society Blueprint 2030 (KL LCSBP 2030), and the Kuala Lumpur Climate Action Plan 2050. Accordingly, the role of community participation is planned in these models as an urban change driving force that is supported by institutional platforms and specific financing systems, such as the Geran Masyarakat MADANI Rendah Karbon (GMMRK). The effectiveness of implementation, however, varies relatively in practice. The review observes that advanced policy models cannot guarantee sustainable community involvement. The future of enhancing low-carbon urban governance involves participation pathways that extend beyond awareness-based approaches and acknowledge communities as active participants with various capacities and lived experiences.
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