Kitingan defends carbon trade in the name of Sabah’s progress

KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan (pic) has again defended the controversial carbon trade deal with a Singapore based company following fresh criticisms.

He also accused Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal of having worked on a similar Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) when he was Chief Minister but that this fell through following a change in state government.

Kitingan said the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS)-led state government was doing everything it could to develop Sabah and concentrate on rebuilding the economy.

“Cancelling the agreement will set back months of hard work and delay our plans for Sabah. We don’t want to manage and run Sabah the way the previous governments did,” he said.

Kitingan also repeated his stand that the agreement was solely for the purpose of conserving the forest and allowing Singapore-based company Hoch Standard Pte Ltd to trade in idle carbon and realise the monetary values of carbon through science.

“The company will find bidders who will offer the best price for Sabah,” he said.

Shafie had criticised the NCA, which was allegedly approved without public consultation, amid fresh claims that the explanation given by the state government through Kitingan was inadequate.

He said several points in an article on an online portal had contradicted Kitingan’s explanation on the NCA last year, including the terms of agreement and the third party company engaged to oversee the deal.

He also claimed that the company had no carbon trade experience.

He said while Warisan was not against efforts to preserve the country’s natural resources or carbon credit deals, this must be done through proper channels and involve reliable partners.

The NCA will initially involve some 600,000ha of Sabah’s totally protected areas. If approved, this NCA is set to be in force for the next 100 years.

According to Kitingan, the terms of the NCA had yet to be finalised but details of the agreement were never made public despite calls for them to be released.

Kitingan accused Shafie of faking information about the government’s NCA with the intention of manipulating on public sentiment.

“First, he accused the government of selling two million hectares of land to foreigners. Now, he is saying it is a lease,” he said.

Kitingan also claimed that under the Warisan carbon deal, Shafie agreed to a 51-49 formula, with 51% of the profits for Sabah. The current deal will see the state government taking 70% of the total profits.

Kitingan also said that Shafie was wrong when it came to assessing the capability of companies because the conventional way failed to include the company’s connectivity and network, as well as its shareholders and directors or the existence of a special purpose company or vehicle.