E-WASTE AND CLIMATE CHANGE: ADDRESSING LEGAL GAPS IN MALAYSIA’S ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJLGC.1143021Keywords:
Basel Convention, Climate Governance, Electronic Waste (E-Waste), Environmental Law, Environmental Quality Act 1974, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), MalaysiaAbstract
Electronic waste (e-waste) is a rapidly growing waste stream that presents significant challenges to environmental sustainability and climate governance. It contributes to climate change through both direct and indirect pathways. Direct climate impacts result from potent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from open burning, unregulated landfilling, and informal dismantling, while indirect impacts arise from virgin metal extraction driven by low recycling rates and constant device turnover. Despite these climate linkages, regulatory responses in many jurisdictions, including Malaysia, continue to treat e-waste primarily as a hazardous-waste management issue rather than a climate governance concern. Against this backdrop, this article adopts a doctrinal legal methodology to critically examine Malaysia’s environmental and climate governance framework relating to e-waste. It analyses national legislation, policy instruments, and relevant international obligations, including circular economy and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) initiatives. The analysis identifies structural legal gaps, including fragmented institutional coordination, inadequate regulation of household e-waste, weak oversight of informal processing activities, and the absence of binding EPR mechanisms. It further demonstrates that existing enforcement practices remain predominantly reactive rather than preventive and climate aligned. The article advances the original argument that Malaysia’s e-waste regime must be reconceptualised as part of climate governance rather than treated solely within a hazardous-waste paradigm. The article proposes targeted statutory and institutional reforms, including the codification of EPR obligations, strengthened inter-agency coordination, and the integration of climate considerations into scheduled waste regulation to align waste governance with Malaysia's Nationally Determined Contributions. By reframing e-waste through a climate governance lens, this study contributes a coherent doctrinal pathway towards a more integrated and climate-responsive regulatory framework in Malaysia.
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