See Chee How
KUCHING (May 19): The Sarawak government has been asked to layout its plans and programmes to cut down greenhouse gas emissions.
In making the call, See Chee How (PSB-Batu Lintang) said the government must enlighten Sarawakians how it will assist and support the private sector to invest in climate-friendly solutions.
“I urge the honourable minister to first enlighten us on the extent or magnitude of Sarawak’s NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) up to 2030, and what are our plans and programmes to fulfil the ambition to cut down our greenhouse gas emissions.
“How are we to assist and support and thus incentivise the private sector to invest in climate-friendly solutions, to thereby making it our collective responsibility for sustainable living for ourselves, Sarawak, and the Mother Earth,” he said when debating the Forests (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
See pointed out Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan had earlier said Malaysia’s NDC was a 45 per cent reduction in the country’s carbon emissions by 2030.
“I will be most grateful if the Honourable Deputy Premier will enlighten us on Sarawak’s commitments under the national NDC and what is the apportionment of NDC of Sarawak in the Federation.
“Until we know the extent or magnitude of Sarawak’s NDC and are able to fulfil it within the continuous five-year time frame, and up to 2030 to help the whole country to fulfil the nation’s NDC, it is premature to start calculating the ‘internationally transferred mitigation outcomes’, another important catchphrase in the Paris Agreement, but is missing in our present amendment Bill,” he said.
According to See, it is a misconception to think that Sarawak can count carbon stock in its forests as in excess and ready for trading.
“When Malaysia as a member Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) made the commitment to reduce our carbon emission by 45 per cent by the year 2030, as compared to now, our existing forests and carbon stock that we have now were already in the national equation.
“We can create additional carbon stock in existing forests but the growth will be slow and over a long period of time.
“In our scheme of this amendment Bill, we seem to replace the ‘internationally transferred mitigation outcomes’ with the magic words ‘carbon credit’, but ‘carbon credit’ is nowhere to be found in the Paris Agreement, and ‘carbon credit’ is hardly the ‘internationally transferred mitigation outcomes’ as it should be in the Paris Agreement,” he pointed out.
See opined Sarawak may have to include an interpretation to describe carbon credit as a form of “internationally transferred mitigation outcomes” to bring it into the realm of the Paris Agreement.
He asserted that Sarawak must avoid repeating the mistake made in Sabah, a purported US$76.5 billion carbon capture project which was exposed and dubbed an international carbon credit debacle, bringing the country into disrepute.
“Let us be reminded of the facts that the various sessions and meetings of the international panels on Climate Change Conference have never authenticated or recommended the monetisation of tree planting under the scheme commonly known as ‘carbon credits’.
“The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) via the various Conference, the most recent of which was held in Glasgow in 2021, has only urged governments and other agencies to undertake programmes for large scale reforestation together with a commitment that all logging of the remaining natural forests must cease by 2030,” he said.
According to him, carbon credit schemes were principally attempts by the business and investment communities to monetise the carbon stock through precarious and largely unvalidated systems whereby the emitters of carbon paid some other entity or individual to offset or sequester this carbon by planting trees.
“This is so that these companies can claim that they now operate a business system that is carbon neutral. This carbon credit ‘business’ has inevitably attracted the venal attention of many get-rich-quick operators and the so-called carbon credits have been mostly discredited by the international scientific community,” he added.
He said the Conference in Glasgow last year had seen the passing of The Glasgow Climate Pact, wherein all nations had reached agreements essentially supporting the transfer of emission reductions between countries while also incentivising the private sector to invest in climate-friendly solutions.
“Simultaneously, parties have decided on cooperative approaches enabling stronger cooperation between countries on mitigation and adaptation.
“Unfortunately, since 1994 when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) entered into force, to the Paris Agreement, and the Glasgow Climate Pact, it is still a work-in-progress, save for the Parties (countries) commitment to ‘nationally determined contribution’ to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement,” he said.