KUCHING: Industries in Sarawak must conform to global requirements to reduce carbon emissions following amendments to the state Land Code.

       Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63 and State-Federal Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said the amendments are aimed at regulating the use of land for the storage, retention, capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to mitigate climate change and global warming.

       “This would make Sarawak the first state in Malaysia to have legislation to enable industries – including oil and gas – operating here to comply with international requirements to reduce carbon emission intensity under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,” she said when tabling the Land Code (Amendment) Bill in the state legislative assembly yesterday.

       The Bill was unanimously approved after it was debated by 17 assemblymen.

       Sharifah Hasidah said the amendments would empower the State Planning Authority to approve sites, both on land and offshore, to be used for carbon storage.

       She said such sites would include depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep unused saline aquifers and deep unmineable coal seams.

       There will be a mechanism for the trading of carbon credit generated from carbon storage based on international standards.