Malaysia expects to join the ranks of the world's group of developed countries by the year 2020. It has certainly experienced the suitably high rates of economic growth over the past decade consistent with such expectations. Current financial instability in the Asian block, coupled with a growing awareness of environmental factors, may induce some hesitation and require changes in direction to be made, but the country, through the Prime Minister, remains committed to achieving its industrialisation goal. With improving wealth comes enhanced levels of energy consumption. Fortunately for Malaysia, it is blessed with abundant supplies of indigenous energy resources, in particular natural gas, oil, coal and hydro, in sufficient quantities to both satisfy the expected rise in demand and to allow considerable export volume, earning valuable income. However, the enormous increase in energy consumption does have environmental consequences. Carbon dioxide emissions are anticipated to grow by 57.1% between 1990 and 2000, with a further 42.6% between 2000 and 2020. If Malaysia is typical of a developing country, world CO2levels can only increase over the same period.