S’wak aims to reduce carbon emissions by 30 to 40 pct by 2030

Dr Hazland Abang Hipni

KUCHING (Sept 8): The 2020s must be the decade of action to help Sarawak reduce its carbon emissions by at least 30 to 40 per cent over the next eight years as the state embarks on its low-carbon journey towards 2030, said Dr Hazland Abang Hipni.

The Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Sustainability said there are six ways to do so including shifting towards renewable energy sources and productions; and electrification of existing fossil fuel-based machinery.

“Other methods are through energy conservation and driving energy efficiencies; adoption of hydrogen fuels and as feedstocks for derivatives in manufacturing industries; embedding carbon capture, utilisation and storage approaches as part of industrial revolutions; and bioenergy as substitutes for existing fossil fuels machineries,” he said in a statement.

He noted that this, however, required collaboration between the private sector, governments and individual users to drive towards the Net Zero targets.

“Governments can work together with the private sector to develop new policy directions to achieve these goals.

“Through Sarawak’s government-linked companies (GLCs), we can create enabling infrastructures such as hydrogen fuelling stations, fuel cell public transportations and EV charging facilities to fast-track adoptions,” he said.

For nations to achieve the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) 1.5C climate target, global carbon dioxide emissions need to drop to net zero by 2050.

Dr Hazland in his statement also touched on Sarawak’s aspiration to be a high-income economy by 2030, which required a growth rate of six to eight per cent per annum over the next decade.

In view of this, he said change of the economic structure was imminent whereby the state needed to scale up its upstream sectors by improving its efficiencies, using technologies rather than manual labours as well as to increase downstream activities that require feedstocks from upstream, especially in the context of natural gas for petrochemical industries.

“Under the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030, we will develop six economic sectors; namely manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, forestry, social services and mining, which will be supported by seven enablers; namely digital transformation, innovation, basic infrastructure, utilities, transport, renewable energy, and education and human capital development.

“Through these efforts, it is estimated that an additional 200,000 high value jobs will be created by 2030 throughout Sarawak, which will raise the monthly household income from RM4,544 today to RM15,000 by 2030,” he said.

He also said that the energy sector will be pivotal to Sarawak’s economy in years to come when the state develops and matures both the upstream and downstream activities together with its supporting industries, especially the services, transport, and logistics sectors.

“While building these industries, we need to ensure that we are aligned with global energy sector developments,” Dr Hazland added.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3KT43Ks
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