| Sourced From |
Bandar Seri Begawan – While oil and gas continue to drive Brunei’s economy, investment in carbon projects could see significant environmental and social returns for the Sultanate.
Mr Stephen Peters, Director of Stratcon Australia, said this yesterday during a press conference, which followed the Clean Energy Seminar that the Australian High Commission hosted at the Radisson Hotel.
“Yes, I do, and I think that there are opportunities not only in jumps in revenue but jumps in environmental and social returns,” he said. “In terms of the returns for Brunei, the returns in financial terms won’t be terrific compared to the oil and gas returns.
“Oil and gas drive the economy, and they drive the economy everywhere. In terms of social returns and environmental returns, it’s significantly high.
“When I talk about that, I’m talking about triple bottom-line. In terms of cash returns, I don’t think it’s going to be a big spinner for Brunei in terms of the investment, but what I think it will be is that it will give Brunei an opportunity to use its capacity, then go and do projects regionally, and I think that’s the real opportunity for Brunei.”
Australian High Commissioner Mark Sawers also spoke at the press conference, and said, “The key issue is being able to pull together the information analysis that will enable Brunei to make good decisions about what to invest in and what-not to.
“As an outsider to this area, I find that there are many different technologies and ideas,” he said. “The key question is how to sift through all those and work out what would work for Brunei.
“Australian companies have a lot of expertise in this field that could be brought in to help Brunei sift those options and work out where it must go, and I think that’s the key question: how can Australian companies actually be used to help lift Brunei to the next level in terms of clean energy?”
Tony Wood, the Clinton Foundation’s Clean Energy Director said, “The Clinton Foundation is an NGO, but an unusual NGO, in that we work on one issue, and that’s on how you bring business solutions to this area of public change, and those areas really make a significant difference.
“We’ve formed a partnership with the global CCF Institute, which is an initiative of the Australian Government and a truly global organisation that has many countries and many companies involved as members,” he continued. “We’ve partnered with them in trying to accelerate the deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage globally. This complements the work we’re doing on large-scale solar.
“I think what’s interesting is, up until a couple of years ago most of the work we did was in developed countries, but what we’re finding now is that countries with rapidly developing economies and simply developing Asia are as much as an opportunity as they are a challenge.” He added. “So what’s really exciting is to see the extent of which leaders of these governments are taking on these challenges, shooting targets, and then the industry, the government within those countries are then looking at how that can happen, whether that’s in renewable energy or in Carbon Capture and Storage.”
Asked about policies that they would possibly be looking at bringing in, Mr Wood said, “Part of the answer that comes from everybody is that this is actually a global challenge, a global initiative and a global industry, and so what is happening is the people are learning both the good things and the bad things that have been tried.
“The real issue is what sorts of things can create the incentives for investments and what kinds of things can create the wrong incentives, because sometimes policies that sound okay create unexpected outcomes.”
Maree Candish, Managing Director of New Forests Asia said, “We are actually full of admiration with how Brunei has managed its natural resources.
“Through good luck and good management you’re producing energy and you’re protecting the forests, and we’re looking at the opportunities for Brunei to actually capitalise on that leadership position to help other countries around the region to protect their forests, and at the same time, safe investments that can bring good returns to the people of Brunei.”
Asked about the importance of the preservation of Brunei’s forests, she said, “That’s for the Brunei people to decide, but one good thing would be to actually understand how much carbon you’ve got in your forests.
“Whether you can make money out of that is another question, but you can certainly tell buyers ‘of your petroleum products just how much carbon you had kept down on that land rather than like other countries around the region, released into the air,” she added.
Guy Watson, Managing Director of Global Edge Project Consulting said, “It’s my first visit to Brunei, and in the short time I’ve been here, it’s struck me just how sophisticated, well-educated and well-developed this nation is.
“The conversation that we’ve had between the panel at the seminar here today demonstrates the opportunities for sophisticated, educated leadership in this region, where Australia can certainly play a part because we bring a level of expertise, and we’d also bring a team-player mentality to cooperate with Asean.”
Mr Garth Taylor, Australia’s Clean Energy and Environment Trade Commissioner to Asean, was also at the press conference as a mediator. — Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin