A coalition of Sabah-based civil societies is set to resort to the civil court to ensure the state government practises due diligence in its pursuit of the divisive carbon trading deal.
Land Empowerment Animals People (Leap) founder Cynthia Ong said the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) was not proceeding due to many objections over the alleged lack of transparency and failure to address concerns on the conservation and socio-economic aspect of the century-long renewable contract, Malay Mail reported.
“The decision to sideline the state attorney-general and press forward regardless only deepens our concern that the common heritage of Sabahans is being handed over to private interests without due regard to proper procedures and accountability.
“This concern for proper governance is why Sabah’s civil society organisations are now initiating a judicial review to determine if the state government complied with the relevant laws and procedures in the approval of the NCA,” she was quoted as saying.
The news portal also reported that Sabah Environmental Protection Association president Alexander Yee said that one focus of the legal action would be on discovering whether the Sabah government undertook the required due diligence, prior to or after signing the contract.
Transparency issues
It was reported that the crux of the group’s concerns lie over the awarding of the contract to Singapore-based company Hoch Standard Pte Ltd, which they alleged has no previous record in natural capital management.
Yee reportedly expressed concern over the company’s lack of transparency over its ownership structure which purportedly involved an entity based in the British Virgin Islands.
“In the absence of transparency by either the state government or Hoch Standard, civil society has launched its own due diligence to identify in the British Virgin Islands the beneficial owner/s of the NCA.
“Sabahans deserve to know who has acquired these extraordinary financial rights over our natural heritage and to know if there are any conflicts of interests between them and the NCA’s state government proponents,” Yee said.
Yesterday, Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor reportedly said that they are keen to proceed with the carbon trade deal.
The controversial NCA signed between the Sabah government and the little-known Singaporean firm in 2021 has raised a lot of concerns over the secrecy surrounding the deal as well as the legitimacy of the firm.
Carbon trading
The deal involves the Sabah government engaging the services of Hoch Standard to come up with nature conservation management plans and giving the firm the exclusive rights to trade carbon credits and other natural capital in designated areas.
This has inadvertently brought scrutiny to the carbon emissions trading scheme, a market that has been gaining traction in Malaysia recently.
In Budget 2022, the federal government pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Then environment and water minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man later said domestic carbon trading will be implemented in three phases by the end of 2022 to execute carbon credit transactions at the domestic level.
He also said the federal government is looking into market design frameworks, registration and cooperation with developing international standards.
In March last year Tuan Ibrahim told Parliament that the ministry was not involved in negotiations involving the Sabah government’s NCA with the Singaporean firm.
He said the ministry only knew what had been reported in the media about the deal.
“The federal government was not informed, referred to, or (made) involved by the Sabah government in the negotiations process for the NCA deal.
“As such, the ministry cannot provide any detailed explanations about the content of the deal.
“If the NCA deal involves international carbon credit transactions, then it will directly impact the country’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions aspirations.
“The ministry always welcomes the Sabah government to refer to and to involve the federal government and other stakeholders in the discussions involving the NCA deal and the carbon market mechanism in the future,” he had said. - Mkini
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