Sabah AG says controversial carbon deal still under revision

KOTA KINABALU, Aug 23 — The Sabah Attorney General’s Chambers today said that negotiations for a controversial carbon trade agreement with a little-known Singapore-based firm are still ongoing, contrary to Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan’s assertions that it is a done deal.

Sabah Attorney General Datuk Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof said that the state government has no issues with the deal between the state government and Hoch Standard, as long as they fulfil the requirements.

“We are still in the midst of discussion,” she replied to reporters after the launching of the Heart of Borneo international conference here when asked if the conditions have been met and the deal, known as the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA), is going ahead.

Her statement slightly contradicts Kitingan, who has repeatedly said that the deal is on, and is now in its pilot stages of having some 60,000 hectares of land gazetted for this purpose.

Earlier today at the same event, Kitingan reiterated that the process had begun, as the deal was now “settled”.

“That has been settled. Everything is moving forward. Things have been overtaken by events. We all are now working together,” he said when asked about any revision to the NCA.

When further pressed on whether the agreement has met all requirements set by the AG, Kitingan said it was not an issue.

In February last year, Nor Asiah had in a statement said that the NCA signed agreement in October of 2021 was not enforceable as due diligence was still being conducted on the third-party company involved.

She said it was not finalised nor binding because it was still missing a lot of details, including an agreed upon forest area.

Kitingan has since refuted the statement, claiming that it was not sent by the AGC and that hidden hands trying to sabotage the deal were involved.

The NCA has been under close scrutiny since it was first reported on conservation website Mongabay.com, with the Opposition, conservationists and industry players calling it out for the lack of transparency, and terms of the deal which were in favour of the third party, Hoch Standard.

Kitingan has been adamant that due diligence has been conducted on the firm, and that the NCA is beneficial to Sabah and needs to get off the ground as soon as possible in order to reap the rewards.