Abang Johari (centre) making his way to the podium for the closing ceremony. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: Sarawak government will embark upon a new hydrogen-related development in the state in a bid to promote green energy so as to earn carbon credits, said Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg today.
The Chief Minister said he would make an announcement within this month, disclosing only that it was about investments on hydrogen projects.
“People want to invest on hydrogen (projects) in Sarawak and Sarawak government has inspected. With this, you can promote green energy and earn carbon credits,” he said when closing the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Special Convention 2020 at the party’s headquarters here.
It is learnt that if a project can quantifiably and repeatably produce less greenhouse gases than the current alternative, it will be eligible to earn carbon credits.
Last year, Sarawak launched its first Integrated Hydrogen Production Plant and Refueling Station for the state’s Green Energy Agenda. The facility is also the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
The facility, built by Sarawak Energy Berhad, includes a plant that produces hydrogen through an electro-chemical process called electrolysis, as well as a refueling station for the state’s first hydrogen fuel cell electric buses owned and managed by Sarawak Economic Development Corporation.
Abang Johari, who is the state ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) chairman, pointed out that the upcoming hydrogen development would make part of the state’s economic restructuring process amidst challenges of the current Covid-19 pandemic.
He said it would also be in tandem with Sarawak’s agenda of emerging as the most developed state in Malaysia by 2030.
In connection with this, he called upon GPS component parties SUPP, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) to work as a team to bring about further progress and prosperity to Sarawak.
“No country can be successful if the people are not united or headed for the right direction together.”
He observed that the Covid-19 pandemic had changed the way business was done as well as the lifestyle of everyone.
He took pride in asserting that Sarawak was the first state in Malaysia to have opted for digitalisation of economy in 2017, before the Covid-19 crisis struck the world.
“We started Sarawak Pay earlier. Even the digital tracing of Covid-19, we started earlier and Putrajaya followed us. We are ahead in terms of digitalisation, and this is part of our economic restructuring process,” he said.
Abang Johari said the Covid-19 pandemic had transformed the lifestyle of everyone and people would have to continue embracing the new norms until a vaccine for the virus is available.
Based on indications of the World Health Organisation (WHO), he said even WHO could not predict when the pandemic would be over albeit indications that a vaccine would be available.
“But it (developing a vaccine) takes time and we have to accept the fact that Covid-19 will be with us.”
Given this, he called on politicians to come up with solutions to address various challenges faced by the community as the war against Covid-19 continued.
He said the GPS government would continue to focus on developing the state’s economy while admitting that solutions would not come in an easy manner.
“That’s why we have set up Sarawak Economic Action Plan Committee to find the best way to address post Covid-19 pandemic issues,” he added.