THE committee is tasked to develop an enactment on carbon exchange within a year.
Sam said the committee was of the opinion that for Sabah to venture into the carbon exchange market, a third party in business dealings is not required as the State has years of experience and its own experts in environment conservation efforts.
“The carbon exchange market was quite underdeveloped for many years. But now it is (developed) because of pollution. So, organisations buy carbon credits to offset their own pollution.
“In doing so, Sabah needs to build a carbon exchange legislation to regulate how the State markets this because we want to lead the market. We don’t want the deal to go through a third party,” he said at a press conference on the matter, here, Monday.
Carbon credit trading is a market-based system designed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, especially carbon dioxide, by creating a financial incentive to do so.
Sam said the State entity to lead the deals in Sabah’s carbon exchange would be the Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah) and that right should remain Sabahan.
“Sabah is blessed with the perception in the region that we have a high level of governance in conservation. But the big difference is on pricing of carbon,” he said.
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