WWF: Solve electricity woes with renewable energy

KOTA KINABALU: WWFMalaysia calls on the Malaysian government to select renewable energy and energy efficiency options as an alternative way to generate electricity as opposed to coal.

This is in response to Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad's call to utilise coal in Sabah during his opening address at the 22nd Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI) 2018.

While electricity woes continue to plague Sabah, steps to rectify this issue should not have a negative impact on the environment.

Last month at a townhall session held in Sabah with Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin, the minister acknowledged the inefficiency in electricity generation, transmission and distribution in Sabah.

WWF-Malaysia is thankful that the ministry is acknowledging the electricity supply problems in Sabah, and applauds its attempts to end the issue that has affected Sabahans for the past many years.

However, the organisation would like to remind the ministry that they must consider climate change issues when it comes to solving our energy problems.

WWF-Malaysia supports the Malaysian government's commitment to the Paris Agreement of holding temperature increase to below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

In the long term, the use of coal and coal-fired plants will bring with it implications that will undermine this commitment. As such, renewable energy options should be the priority for Sabah.

WWF-Malaysia was part of the Green SURF (Sabah Unite to RePower the Future) coalition in 2009 which successfully stopped the coal power plant project in Sabah. Since then, a number of studies had been conducted on the feasibility of renewable energy in Sabah.

The topic of renewable energy in Sabah is not new. As a responsible government, protection of the environment for the well-being of the people should be top on the list.