THE Sarawak government has approved in principle a licence to Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS) for carbon storage activities at 1.318 million hectares or 3.257 million acres of Miri-Bintulu waters.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said this is to facilitate carbon trading activities to be more systematic and orderly.
“Moreover, the issuance of the licence is to support Malaysia’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050 and the Environment (Reduction of Greenhouse Gases Emission) Bill, 2023 which was approved by the august House recently,” he said.
Awang Tengah, who is also the Second Minister of Natural Resource and Urban Development, said this when delivering his ministerial winding-up speech in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) today.
He said the state government has also conducted a study titled ‘Sarawak Climate Change Policy and Low Carbon Society Blueprints in Cities and Towns (Kuching, Miri, Sibu and Bintulu)’ to draft mitigation and adaptation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen climate resilience.
“Sarawak is also the first region in Malaysia to legislate and regulate carbon activity through the land and forestry sector as contained in the amendments to the Sarawak Land Code and Forests Ordinance which were respectively passed by DUN on May 18 to 19 last year.
“The amendments to the Forests Ordinance, 2015, and the Forests (Forest Carbon Activity) Rules, 2022 which have been passed can now be implemented.
“And carbon trading activity is a new potential to generate income from the forest resources in Sarawak,” he said.
So far, he said, only one carbon study permit has been issued to a local company to study and assess the actual potential of an area to carry out carbon activities.
“Three more carbon study permits are in the final process where one of them involves a blue carbon study in mangrove forest areas,” he said.
Awang Tengah explained that the blue carbon refers to the carbon stored in the marine ecosystem mainly by mangrove forests and seagrass.
“These ecosystems play an important role in the absorption and storage of large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“Therefore, activities involving conservation in relation to blue carbon are very important to balance the absorption of carbon consistently in the future,” he said.
