Save Sabah!

Bid to silence Sabah’s anti-coal campaign

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/118711

Joe Fernandez
Dec 1, 09

The Sabah government has warned a coalition of environmentalists against continuing to publicise their anti-coal option campaign, insisting that they should "use the proper forum" to express dissatisfaction.

Since the weekend, Green Surf (Sabah Unite to Re-power the Future) and Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) have been selectively leaking the proposed terms of reference (TOR) for the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) on the coal plant.

State minister for tourism, culture and environment Masidi Manjun (left) today issued a thinly-veiled threat, proffered as "friendly advice".

"Green Surf or Sepa should consider whether it is appropriate for them to air their differences (on the coal plant) in public and through the media, even before the TOR have been finalised," he said.

He conceded that "it is fair for the public to have access to the final TOR" but noted that these are still being drawn up at a series of meetings in Putrajaya and Kota Kinabalu.

"They (Green Surf) can forward their opinions and grouses during the next meeting (in Kota Kinabalu).

"Perhaps it would serve their interests more effectively if they refrain from making public, at this point of time, every one of their disagreements on the TOR. Instead, they should concentrate on arguing their points during the meetings."

Masidi stressed that the invitation to Green Surf to attend the meetings is proof that the state government values their input.

"To engage in the media on the TOR even before these are finalised would make it even more difficult for the various parties to engage in a professional exchange of opinions.

"All parties should attend the meetings with an open mind. They should be ready to accept with humility that their preconceived notions on certain aspects may not necessarily hold water."

Masidi clarified that the DEIA report would cover water quality, wetlands, ecology, land use, solid waste management, hydrology, drainage, flood analysis, landscape and visual aspects.

Other issues are the terrestrial ecology, flora, fauna, biodiversity, conservation, marine ecology, fisheries, coastal process, phytoplankton, coral reef and sea grass, climate, air quality, air quality dispersion modeling, environmental cost benefit analysis, public and workers’ health, environmental health risk assessment, quantitative risk and hazard assessment emergency response plan, coastal hydraulic and hydrodynamics, and thermal and chlorine dispersion.

He denied Green Surf’s allegation that the TOR would be filled with "predetermined and conclusive statements without scientific backing, facts and figures".

Shortcomings detected

Green Surf remained undeterred by Masidi’s "damage control" move, maintaining that "the TOR is sub-standard and totally unacceptable".

"The TOR appears to ignore the long-term impact of the proposed coal plant’s emission into the pristine Darvel Bay," said Sepa president Wong Tack.

He disclosed that Green Surf had three representatives – including himself – at a Department of Environment meeting in Putrajaya on Nov 24 and discovered that the TOR are being drawn up without external consultation.

"Given the various shortcomings in the TOR, these should have been rejected then and there in Putrajaya," stressed Wong.

"We are very concerned about the limited scope of study in the TOR. These should not have contained conclusive statements."

Wong also alleged that the TOR does not comply with the Sabah Development Corridor planning requirements or with other state guidelines, such as shoreline development, fisheries and tourism.

"The TOR also acknowledges that no study was carried out on the cumulative effects of the coal plant emissions over a five to 10-year period," he said.

"Even state government representatives have voiced concern on the adverse impact of the emissions on the Tun Sakaran Marine Park and the world-renowned diving haven of Pulau Sipadan over the long term."

Green Surf alleged that a key weakness of the TOR is that these were based on climate conditions in Tawau, and not the proposed site near Lahad Datu, 200km away.

Tawau was the second site selected after the initial location in Sandakan was abandoned on a wave of public protests.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Dear PM - Please Make Up Your Mind on Coal! As a "custodian for future generations", please Do Not Waver!

A Green Malaysia for the Future

Nov 21, 2009

Taken from the Prime Minister’s blog:

http://www.1malaysia.com.my/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=a-green-malaysia-for-the-future-4898.html&Itemid=54&lang=en#readmore

[Blog note: Again, we repeat our call -- Can the REAL Najib please stand up??]

With nations recently meeting to discuss a climate change treaty, ahead of the Copenhagen summit in December, I’m reminded that the environment is everyone’s responsibility, and that we must all change our mindset to give it greater consideration. We should do this especially as we are custodians for future generations.

New Malaysian initiatives unveiled recently leave me feeling ever optimistic that we are doing more to preserve what we have, in order that our children and their children may enjoy our unique, natural wonders for years to come.

Firstly, under Budget 2010, a fund amounting to RM1.5 billion will be established by the Government to provide soft loans to companies supplying and utilising green technology. The Government is furthermore committed to restructuring the Malaysia Energy Centre as the National Green Technology Centre; organising an international exhibition on green technology next year; developing Putrajaya and Cyberjaya as pioneer townships in green technology; and giving priority to environmentally-friendly products and services.

Another initiative sees the Sabah state government partnering with WWF-Malaysia to conserve large tracts of forest to protect the habitat of endangered orangutans. The area targeted for restoration amounts to nearly 1,500 football pitches in size.

Thirdly, there is the National Tiger Action Plan, adopted by the National Biodiversity-Biotechnology Council. The plan targets an increase in Malaysia’s tiger population from fewer than 500 to 1,000 by 2020. The setting up of a National Biodiversity Centre was also agreed, to further strengthen the management and conservation of biodiversity in Malaysia.

[Blog note: We wonder whether it is accurate to say that "Fourthly, the Federal Government is 'committed' to REVERSE ALL OF THE ABOVE EFFORTS by forcing Sabah to accept a coal-fired power plant (using made-in-China technology), which the PM himself has regarded as "DIRTY, NOT ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY""??!!]

We should not stop at these measures. I would like to obtain your views on what more we can do to ensure a greener Malaysia, so that we can learn from each other. How are you reducing your carbon footprint? Please share your thoughts by submitting a comment. You might also be interested in following the blog of Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui, the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, for his thoughts and opinions on green matters.

[Blog note: BRAVO, dear PM!!! As you yourself has said on your Twitter on 21 November 2009:

"In cockpit as we landed in foggy London. Typical British weather. Floods in north a bad sign. Climate change: world needs to act decisively."

We believe that the first important step to reverse global warming is to STOP coal burning. Therefore, Many of us in Sabah have this thought and comment for you on "what more we can do to ensure a greener Malaysia":

STOP CONTRADICTING YOURSELF ON COAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE AND CANCEL THE COAL POWER PLANT IN SABAH, RIGHT NOW!!

We in Sabah really hope that you would sincerely "learn from each other"... We certainly hope it's NOT a one-way street, i.e. WE are forced to 'learn' what YOUR Government want us to accept...]

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Najib: "Coal is what we call DIRTY technology, it's NOT environmentally friendly"

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/41958-pm-says-country-over-dependent-on-ipps

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak admitted today that the government needs to revise its energy policy, calling the current one obsolete and in need of a revamp.

In his keynote address at electricity utility TNB’s 60th anniversary celebration here, he said the current policy was proven to be costly, both environmentally and financially.

Heavy dependence on independent power producers (IPPs) and costly natural resources like natural gas have taken its toll on the government financially while cheaper options like coal is damaging to the environment, said the prime minister.

“I don’t like the current energy policy. It’s not right,” he told some 1,500 TNB workers attending the event.

“We are overly dependent on the IPPs and expensive resources like natural gas to produce energy and coal is what we call DIRTY technology, it’s NOT environmentally friendly,” he added.

Relations between IPPs and the government have not been good in recent years.

Many leaders from both sides of the political spectrum are calling for the government to be firm with the IPPs which they claimed have been stepping on its toes by providing energy at high prices.

While Najib today said the government should stop depending on the IPPs, he did not mention how the government planned to do so.

Later at a press conference, Najib said the government had begun embarking on a new energy policy that he claims would be focusing more on cost-effective resources.

As revealed in Najib’s maiden Budget recently, the prime minister told the media that his administration had started studying sectors like renewable energy and green technology to replace the current policy.

“It’s not a short-term solution, it’s a long one but we need to make the first step,” he said.

Popularity: 6% [?]

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/41467-asias-reliance-on-coal-spells-trouble–michael-richardson-

Global Warming - Coal is the main culprit

OCT 26 – Asia’s rebound from the global economic slump is cheering the world. But the revival is bad news for the environment because it is largely driven by a production system addicted to fossil fuels.

This helps explain why it is proving so difficult for international climate change negotiators to bridge the gulf that divides developed and developing countries.

It also helps explain why China and India, despite tensions over territorial and water disputes, agreed last week to work together to resist binding cuts or caps to their greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) calculates that around 65 per cent of these emissions worldwide come from energy use or production.

The economic crisis has had a significant impact on the energy sector. The IEA reported earlier this month that investment in polluting technologies had been deferred and emissions of carbon dioxide could fall this year by as much as 3 per cent – steeper than at any time in the last 40 years.

“This gives us a chance to make real progress towards a clean-energy future,” said IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka. But, he added, “only if the right policies are put in place promptly”.

Here’s a snapshot of global energy use. Fossil fuels account for 80 per cent of demand: oil (34 per cent); coal (25 per cent); natural gas (21 per cent). The rest comes from wood, other biomass and waste (11 per cent); nuclear power (6.5 per cent); hydro-power (2.2 per cent). Less than 1 per cent of global energy demand is met by clean sources such as geothermal, solar and wind.

Shifting this energy production pattern towards a system that produces little greenhouse gas emissions is politically difficult and very costly, particularly in Asia.

Oxford University economist Dieter Helm – who has co-edited a new book, The Economics And Politics Of Climate Change – says climate change is really “about the massive increase of coal burning internationally, especially the growth of China and India fuelled by coal-based energy – and America too, where the Obama plans are also small relative to the problem”.

What does he mean? Coal fuels heavy industries, like steel and cement. But electricity is the key. It powers so much of modern life, from cooling and heating to lighting, computers and the Internet.

Electricity production accounts for nearly one-third of global fossil fuel use. It is the source of about 40 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and about one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.

Half of the electricity generated in the United States is from coal. In India, the figure is 70 per cent, and in China, 80 per cent. Why? Because coal is up to six times less expensive per unit of energy than oil or gas. It is also locally available in huge quantities. [Blog note: NOT so for Sabah!! So, WHY are we still using IMPORTED coal from Indonesia but not our own natural gas from Kimanis??]

Yet, despite some improvements, coal remains the most carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels. Modern US coal-fired plants still emit nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide at nine and 90 times the rate of new gas-fired plants respectively. And these plants emit carbon dioxide at more than twice the rate of new plants that generate electricity by burning natural gas.

In 2000, coal provided 28 per cent of the world’s fossil fuel energy production, compared with 45 per cent for oil. By last year, coal’s share had risen to 33 per cent. Coal use in China and India alone is not far short of consumption in the US and the rest of the world combined.

While coal use has started declining in many developed economies, China has in recent years been commissioning the equivalent of two 500MW coal-fired power plants per week, adding a capacity comparable to the entire power grid of Britain each year. A single such plant releases about 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually into the air.

India uses only about a fifth as much coal as China. But with a population similar to that of China, a rapidly expanding economy and rising demand for electricity, India may one day come to rival China in its coal use.

Demand for electricity is growing in South-east Asia too. If countries in the region were committed to cutting emissions, they would follow Singapore, Malaysia [???] and Thailand in switching from coal- and oil-burning plants to gas.

Instead, coal use is rising. Indonesia is in the midst of adding 10,000MW of coal-fired power to an existing capacity of 35,000MW, of which about 20 per cent burns coal. Indonesia became the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal for power plants in 2007.

Vietnam plans to bring nearly 49,000MW of capacity online between 2006 and 2015. Over half the addition is to be fuelled by coal.

Even Malaysia and Thailand are planning to increase coal use in their power plants to lower costs and diversify sources of fuel.

The World Bank’s development report last month noted that 1.6 billion people – nearly a quarter of the world’s population – have no electricity. These citizens of developing countries need massive expansions in energy, transport, urban systems and agricultural production.

Clean or not, coal is likely to be a big part of their future energy needs. – The Straits Times

[But why do we have to use it when we have environmentally-friendly alternatives like gas, hydro and so on??]

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He said the proposed site of the coal-fired plant is at Kg Sinakut, about one kilometer from the Sahabat Resort. He said

Kg Sinakut is part of a totally pristine coastline 40km long, stretching between Tunku and Dent Haven around the eastern most

tip of Dent Peninsula. The Dent Haven is Sabah’s last wilderness frontier.

The likely destruction of the environment in the Dent Peninsula should be sufficient ground for the Environmental Impact

Assessment (EIA) to report the negative impact of the coal-fired plant in the area, and thereby give a strong recommendation for

the Government to reject the proposed coal-fired plant altogether

 

I am not sure, however, whether Datuk Peter Chin’s assurance that Tenaga Nasional (TNB) would be using the highest

standard coal on par with that used by coal-fired plants in developed countries is sufficient to allay our fears about this known

polluter of the environment. He is the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water.

But does this position gives him the authority to give assurance about coal-fired plants? Both China and the USA are said

to be dismantling their coal fired plants, and it is, I believe because of the pollution caused by the use of coal.

Let us not become another great “offender”

to destroy mother nature – such as the ozone layer and closer to home – our “pristine coastlines and wilderness”, our environment…………………..

Read the rest of this entry »

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