October 31st, 2009, was a historic day for the environmental movement in Sabah, as LEAP joined forces with four other prominent local NGOs to form a coalition named ‘Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future’ or Green SURF, to oppose dirty energy such as coal-fired power plants.
This historic event took place on Tanjung Aru beach in Kota Kinabalu, a place close to the heart of many Sabahans and symbolic of the vulnerability of the coastline to global warming and sea level rise.
The coalition, which along with LEAP consists of WWF Malaysia, Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) –Sabah Branch, Partners of Community Organizations (PACOS) Trust and the Sabah Environmental Protection Association (SEPA), aims to present positive solutions to the current energy situation in Sabah, and in particular to oppose the construction of a coal-fired power plant on the southeast coast of Sabah near Lahad Datu.
The proposed site for the power plant is close to the famous Tabin Wildlife Reserve, which is home to half of Sabah’s remaining Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino population, and right on the edge of the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion, part of the richest marine area in the world, known as the Coral Triangle. Coal will be barged in from Kalimantan and carbon dioxide emissions from the power plant will be huge.
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Green SURF mobilized through advocacy and raising awareness through numerous newspaper articles and the setting up of a blog and a petition against the proposed power plant, and in December 2009 held a highly successful Green Party in the heart of Kota Kinabalu which focused on the effects of the proposed power plant and attracted many local participants and visiting tourists. A striking t-shirt was produced bearing the slogans “Unite for a Greener Future” and “It Ain’t Green, Its Black!” and a green wrist band which has proved very popular with the slogan “If you love Sabah – NO COAL!”.
Perhaps most significantly, Green SURF commissioned Professor Daniel Kammen, a renowned energy expert from University of California, Berkeley, USA, and his team to write an energy analysis for Sabah comprising renewable energy alternatives, cost analyses, and national policy recommendations. The report, entitled “Clean Energy Options for Sabah”, proposes alternatives to the coal-fired power plant that comprise a mix of biomass waste, hydropower, solar, wind and geothermal energy sources. Copies of the report have been given to the Sabah Chief Minister, the state government and other top officials and the report is available on line at this link.
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Professor Kammen was also one of the key speakers at a public forum on ‘Energy Options for Sabah’, organized by Green SURF on 20th March, 2010, where over 400 people came to hear presentations by Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, PACOS Trust, WWF Malaysia and Sabah Environmental Protection Association, as well as Professor Kammen. This was one of the few times the public in Sabah have had a chance to speak out and ask questions on this highly controversial topic. Indeed the ‘coal issue’ has become one of the hottest and most talked about topics in Sabah!
