Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is a net carbon sink but has eight of Malaysia’s 10 poorest districts, highlighting the need to ensure that carbon-market investments translate into tangible economic benefits for local communities.
Sabah Government Climate Advisor Datuk Darrel Webber said the State had abundant natural resources, including forests, mangroves and oil palm, as well as its own laws, yet poverty remained a concern.
“We have forests, mangroves, palm oil and our law, yet many of our people are poor. This is the part I am not proud of,” he said at the recent Sustainable Action Conference 4.0, themed “Sustainability as the New Economic Advantage”, organised by Control Union Malaysia.
Webber said Sabah’s status as a net carbon sink presented an opportunity to attract investment and develop a low-carbon economy, provided the benefits were shared more widely.
“I do not think there are many jurisdictions in the world that can call themselves a net carbon sink,” he said, noting that Sabah calculated its greenhouse gas inventory in 2024, making it one of the first to do so.
He cautioned that carbon markets must not allow the State to supply raw materials while others capture most of the economic value.
“If a carbon market only makes money at the top, we repeat an old story. Sabah would supply the raw materials while others take the value,” he said.
Carbon, he added, should serve as a driver of broader economic development rather than an opportunity that benefits only a handful of people.
“Buyers around the world increasingly ask for low carbon goods, and they want proof. A carbon market gives us the rules, the records and the proof they ask for. Sabah can be the place where goods are made, not only where they are grown. I would like to see two doors open for investors,” he said.
The first opportunity, he said, was for companies based in Sabah or sourcing products from the State to invest in insetting initiatives that reduce carbon emissions across their supply chains.
“They invest in Sabah and the value of their investment stays in Sabah,” he said.
The second was to attract businesses seeking to participate in the low-carbon economy by establishing operations in Sabah and using carbon credits generated in the State as part of their journey towards net zero.
Webber said he wanted to see more middle- and downstream activities established locally, particularly the processing and manufacturing of products derived from agriculture and timber.
“Because Sabah takes in more carbon than it gives out, we have room to grow without losing our low carbon standing,” he said.
He said the success of carbon projects and investments should be assessed by how much value remained in Sabah, how much reached lower-income communities and how much new capacity was developed locally.
Webber said Sabah accounted for 22 per cent of Malaysia’s land area, while 36 per cent of the country’s carbon sequestration capacity came from the State. Sabah also had 60 per cent of Malaysia’s mangroves, he said.
He cited Sabah’s history of forest conservation initiatives, including the Infapro Rainforest Project, which began in 1992 and used nature-based approaches to address climate change.
More recently, the Kuamut Rainforest Conservation Project became Malaysia’s first certified nature-based carbon project, he said.
Webber also highlighted Sabah’s record in forest certification, saying the State had the world’s longest certified tropical rainforest under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1997.
Sabah was also Malaysia’s largest palm oil-producing region and, consequently, probably its largest producer of certified sustainable palm oil, he said.
He added that Sabah was the only Malaysian region committed to certifying all its palm oil by 2030 according to the highest and most credible international sustainability standards.
