Sabah civil society groups keen to play a role in 12MP green energy rollout

A rural riverside village - Kg Sikait - in Sabah's interior Pagalungan along the state's border with Kalimantan. (picture courtesy PACOS Trust)

KOTA KINABALU: Civil society in Sabah looks forward to working closely with the government in its push for more green energy development under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).

A coalition of four Sabah-based civil society groups welcomed the Federal Government's assurance that a National Energy Policy would be introduced to provide strategic direction for the country to achieve its carbon-neutral aspiration by 2050.

The coalition, comprising Tonibung-Create, PACOS Trust, Green Empowerment and Forever Sabah, said this direction was in line with their efforts to address Sabah's rural energy needs through renewable sources by 2027.

They said the 12MP tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob fit in well with the Sabah Renewable Energy Rural Electrification Roadmap that they have set out to implement with the state government and other agencies.

“We look forward to better alignment and meaningful cooperation with government in addressing community development, livelihood, energy equity, and low-carbon local economies in our transition towards a climate-resilient future for Sabah and Malaysia,” said Alice Jipius of NGO Tonibung-Create, which has been involved in building renewable energy micro- and mini-grids for the last 20 years.

Studying at night without electricity at a rural village in Sabah ( Photo courtesy Forever Sabah)

The groups explained that they had been working as a consortium with the support of UK PACT (Partners for Accelerated Climate Transitions).

They put together the state's rural electrification road map with the Sabah Economic Planning Unit, state Rural Development Ministry and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd among other state agencies, and hope it would be integrated into the state’s strategic planning.

The group said the Federal Government's commitment towards reducing the national carbon footprint by 2050 by working with stakeholders and civil society as partners augured well for their efforts.

In tabling the 12MP, Ismail Sabri had said that for the country to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), civil society organisations would be recognised as development partners and their roles institutionalised in governance mechanisms, especially in implementing and monitoring development programmes at grassroots level.

Solar panel maintenance at Kg. Sabibingkol in Sabah's rural Pensiangan area. (Photo courtesy Tonibung)

“We’re pleased to see this convergence of aspiration and strategy between government and civil society and believe that with our combined will, capacities and capabilities, we can achieve them.

"It is very much our intention to bring our best abilities and contributions to the table," said Cynthia Ong of Forever Sabah, who leads the group.

PACOS Trust's Anne Lasimbang said the cooperation would help bring real and inclusive development to communities in rural Sabah.

Gabriel Sundoro Wynn of Green Empowerment, meanwhile, said civil society had access to international climate financing resources, expertise and partnerships in distinct ways that would bring value to the socioeconomic development process.

The group noted that eight of the 10 poorest districts in the country identified under the 12MP are in Sabah.

It said there was a direct relationship between energy access and socioeconomic inclusion with three-quarters of Sabah’s non-supplied communities in those eight districts.