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By Yee Mei
KUALA LUMPUR, June 27: With abundant natural resources, Sarawak is sure to be able to generate revenue from natural-based solutions towards climate change mitigation, says Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Sustainability Sarawak (MEESTY) Dr Hazland Abang Hipni.
“Sarawak is blessed with a package of natural resources, which is our biggest advantage, especially towards strategies in climate change mitigation. The resources are our big landmass, which is about 12 billion hectares, and 62 per cent is covered with forests, including peat and mangrove.
“That means we have a lot of carbon, and it is estimated that we have between 750 million tonnes of carbon to a maximum of about one billion.
“You can imagine the revenue that we can achieve from natural-based solutions towards climate change mitigation,” he said when speaking at a parallel session on ‘Politics & Policies: Building Bridges and Removing Barriers’ held in conjunction with the Energy Asia 2023 conference at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.
Dr Hazland also said another resource Sarawak is rich in is rivers.
“We have four hydroelectric dams which can generate about 5.4 gigawatts, and we can upscale the energy in the next six years to about 8.4 gigawatts through floating solar, cascading dams and micro dams.
“So, we are blessed with all these resources,” he said.
He added that with green hydroelectricity, the State could produce green hydrogen.
“So that is premium hydrogen. With that, we have succeeded in securing two hydrogen production plants. One is by the Koreans, and the other is by the Japanese, and it can produce about 100,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year, and we will start production by 2027.
“These are the investments potential and opportunities that we have in Sarawak besides the floating solar, and we are going into the bio-energy through microalgae, which can produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) when the microalgae are combined with carbon dioxide, it will produce lipids, carbohydrates, and protein.
“And it is the lipids that will produce the high-quality SAF, and we just proved that possibility a few weeks ago,” he said.
He added with a strong political view through Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg and the Sarawak Cabinet members, they can proceed with strategies to not only mitigate climate change but also create new revenues utilising natural resources available in the State. — DayakDaily
