Kota Kinabalu: Sabah should start a second carbon credit project to earn money from its forests and energy saving, according to Universiti Putra Malaysia Professor Datuk Dr H’ng Paik San.
“Sabah is the first state in Malaysia to get carbon credit under the Kuamut Forestry Project. So, there is no need to ask again whether Sabah can get carbon credit or not,” said H’ng.
“Today we are talking about what is next for Sabah. Can we come up with a second project?” he said in his framing keynote at the recent Carbon Credit and ESG Ecosystem Conference 2026 held at the Sabah International Convention Centre.
The conference was organised by Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), UPM, the SMJ Secretariat and the Sabah Wetlands Conservation Society. It was attended by high-ranking state civil servants, undergraduates and researchers.
H’ng said carbon credits are payments given to projects that cut or absorb pollution and they can be sold to companies that want to offset their own emissions.
He proposed two projects. The first is an acacia plantation, which he said could yield about 73,540 tonnes of carbon credits from 5,000 hectares or about 1.4 million tonnes over 20 years.
The second is an energy saving retrofit of buildings such as hospitals, street lamps and government buildings grouped under one application.
For a 500-bed hospital, he said, the target is a 28 per cent cut in electricity use and about 2,000 carbon credits a year.
He said carbon credits are needed because green projects cost a lot and take years to pay back.
“A 10-megawatt biomass power plant costs between RM150 million and RM180 million which puts its power cost above 28 sen per kilowatt-hour.
“This is higher than Sabah’s tariff which is the lowest in the country,” he said, pointing out that there would not be any successful renewable energy project here without carbon credit. “Please maintain your tariff. Let us get one or two renewable energy projects here credited with carbon credit and then you increase your tariff,” he said.
Additionally, he hopes Malaysia’s carbon tax, which has been postponed, would start at a minimum of RM20.
“If it starts at RM5, then there is no point,” he said, encouraging everyone involved or thinking of pursuing carbon credit endeavours to register their own accounts with Verra, the body that issues carbon credits, before signing any agreement.