KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia is capable of showing to the world how to handle energy problems and handle climate change effectively by choosing to use renewable energy.
British ocean rower and environmental campaigner, Roz Savage, spent the past week in Sabah spreading her message for clean energy, especially with the coal-fired power plant issue gaining international coverage.
“The intelligent choice for any modern, forward-looking country is clean, renewable energy. The Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak would do the right thing for Malaysia and the world in pushing for clean energy.
“We do not have to make the mistakes that developed countries are now trying to correct. It all starts with decisions like these. Just because everyone is using coal-fired power plants does not make it the right choice,” she told a press conference after ending her trip here by para-sailing in Tanjung Aru, yesterday.
Savage, who is the first woman to row solo across the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, climbed Mount Kinabalu, dived in Sabah waters and para-sailed above it while carrying a banner sponsored by Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future) and the international 350.org, calling for clean energy in Sabah.
“We will fight dirty energy on the land, we will fight dirty energy in the air and we will fight dirty energy under the water because dirty energy pollutes all of these,” she said.
Savage said she took up her oars because she believes in a cleaner, greener future and urges the people of Sabah to take up their pen, phone or computer mouse and let the Prime Minister know how you feel about dirty energy.
Green SURF, a coalition of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) wants the government to scrap the proposal to build a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Lahad Datu.
Green SURF has teamed up with 350.org, an international campaign that is building a movement to unite the world on solutions to the climate crisis.
Green SURF’s Cynthia Ong said that Savage received an email from international partner 350.org on the coalition’s efforts to halt the construction of the proposed coal-fired power plant and asked what she could do to help.
“Roz Savage had just completed rowing solo across the Pacific and was passing through the region. She heard our call and asked what she could do to help in our campaign.
“She knows, as we do, that this is both a local and global story of our energy quest and climate change,” Ong said.
Ong, who just returned from the annual gathering of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Bali, stressed that there is a need for locals to voice and act upon their concerns about the proposed coal-fired power plant.
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