Southeast Asian country Malaysia is looking to use a higher percentage of renewables in its energy mix in the next five years, its environment minister said on Tuesday.

Yeo Bee Yin, who is Malaysia's minister for energy, science, technology, environment and climate change, said the country is targeting to generate 20% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025 — up from 2% currently.

Playing down the possibility of a carbon tax, Yeo suggested that solar energy is a viable option for Malaysia, a tropical country.

"We are a developing country. We want to look into what will be the best solution, as in the best economical solution for us first before looking into taxing ... people (more). For example, energy efficiency. Energy efficiency saves your electricity bill as well as decarbonizing. Can we incentivize that?"

For instance, "solar is getting cheaper; can we make it cheaper so that people go into it?" she told CNBC at Singapore International Energy Week.

As the cost of renewables becomes more competitive with fossil fuels, interest in cleaner energy solutions grows.

Neighboring Singapore said on Monday it plans to speed up the use of renewable energy, particularly in solar, the country's trade and industry minister told CNBC.