Malaysia's Sarawak province is progressing works on developing its carbon market and is in the process of finalising a carbon levy framework, premier Abang Johari said at the Argus Asia Carbon conference in Kuching on 29 May, where the province's sustainability blueprint for 2030 was launched.
Sarawak "remains at the forefront of strengthening forest carbon initiatives through innovative nature based-solutions," Johari said, adding that the province has issued seven permits related to forestry carbon studies and granted one license for a nature-based project while six more permits are being processed.
Sarawak is "in the process of finalising" its carbon levy framework — on which the World Bank has provided technical support — to accurately price carbon dioxide emissions and encourage responsible environmental practices, Johari said.
"We also acknowledge the vital progress made at the global level," he said, adding that the recent agreement on the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism was "a significant step forward."
The adoption of standards for baseline methodologies and leakage accounting will enhance the integrity and credibility of carbon credits on a global scale, he added.
Sarawak will soon publish a carbon plan aimed at facilitating carbon market investments in the province. It will offer a detailed implementation framework designed to catalyse carbon trading. The province also plans to publish a comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory report by 2027 to track the emissions and stay within its carbon budget, Johari said.
Sarawak is also positioning itself as a key hub for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in southeast Asia. It has committed to developing four carbon storage sites by 2030, with Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) appointed as the resource manager for CCUS initiatives. Petros signed a storage site agreement in February 2024 with Petronas and a Japanese consortium of companies for the M3 depleted field offshore. And in July last year it launched a bidding round offering three carbon storage sites with an estimated combined capacity of 1bn t of CO2.
Sarawak aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
