KOTA KINABALU: The controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) to sell carbon credit in Sabah was never shelved but only delayed, said Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan.
He made the clarification following confusion that arose from a statement made by Sabah Attorney-General (AG) Datuk Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof last year, who said the agreement was not enforceable as due diligence was still being conducted.
He said the State AG office never submitted the objection formally to the State Cabinet nor the NCA’s steering and management committee, but instead “forwarded straight to the press”.
“They should have (officially) given it to me but they gave it directly to the press. This means somebody is playing around,” he told reporters at the 2023 State-level Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen’s Day celebration at Wisma Pertanian, Thursday.
He did not name who the person was.
Jeffrey reiterated that the carbon trade deal is still on track and that Sabah has missed out on billions in revenue now that it has been delayed for one year.
“We lost time. It takes one year to 18 months to get any results.You need satellites, planes, drones and human capital to verify the content of carbon. So we are wasting a lot of time.
“Right now we are only getting RM110 million from our forest reserves. Compare that to conservation, it would be billions. So what are we waiting for? We have already lost a year (of progress),” he said.
On July 21, Indigenous right activist Adrian Lasimbang had urged the Sabah Attorney-General and State Chief Conservator of Forests to state their stand over the controversial carbon credit deal.
— Anthea Peter