KOTA KINABALU – Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan today denied the involvement of Australia-based company Tierra Australia in the controversial carbon trade agreement signed by the state on October 30.
In assuring that any shortcomings of the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) would be rectified in its fine-tuning, Jeffrey said the carbon trade deal, which was authorised by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor himself, was only signed with Hoch Standard, a Singapore-based firm.
Jeffrey assured the deal was inked with “capable, competent, proper and connected groups or people who are able to deliver what they say”, adding that Hoch Standard is backed by several multibillion-dollar private equity firms globally.
“The concerns are whether the state is being conned. We accepted all these concerns. We are also concerned if we (the state government) would be taken for a ride.
“If they don’t deliver, there’s two provisions in the state laws to protect the state from any misdeeds – for instance, the policy of a two-year agreement not being implemented, it will be automatically revoked and the second one, if they don’t perform, the state government has the right to terminate the deal,” said Jeffrey after chairing the NCA briefing attended by about 20 NGO groups today.
In the two-hour briefing, civil society members voiced concern that the NCA could be a dodgy deal and expressed fear that Sabah could be shortchanged via the agreement.
They said it could end up like the “Malaysia Agreement 1963” that is filled with loopholes.
Jeffrey admitted that the signing of the NCA was shrouded with secrecy but pointed out that it was done for the recent United Nations Climate Change summit, COP26, and in line with the Heart of Borneo Initiative.
He also denied that the deal had been rushed without taking into account the specific rights pertaining to the indigenous people.
We are dealing with land of Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) which have already gone through the process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent as required for such classification.
“Additionally, the forest enactments have gone through debates in the state legislative assembly,” he said.
Under the NCA, Sabah is getting a 70% cut while Hoch Standard will get the 30% remainder under a revenue sharing deal.
As many of the agreement’s terms are still being fine-tuned, Kitingan said the deal would start with 600,000 hectares first before expanding up to 2 million hectares, depending on whether the terms are beneficial for Sabah.
He noted that while the location of the TPAs has yet to be specifically determined, the projected revenue generated from the blockchain trading could potentially hit the tune of RM3.2 billion for Sabah.
He said the prospective carbon trade will be done in blockchain, adding that the state can generate up to RM3.2 billion in revenue in the future if successful.
Jeffrey said Sabah had entered into a carbon trading deal before but did not see any benefits from it at the time as there was no reliable platform to value the carbon credits.
“Now we are entering into these again as they are now a reliable platform to do so,” Jeffrey said in reference to the deal with Hoch Standard, adding that the firm had approached the Warisan government previously on the matter.
He said Hoch Standard would be providing the platform to connect with the off-takers, asset verifiers and also the United Nations parties linked in carbon trading.
He welcomed further queries about the NCA from assemblymen when the state legislative assembly convenes for the budget sitting on December 3. – The Vibes, November 18, 2021
