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Andrew Sheng

Sitting by the Tanjung Aru beach in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, watching one of the most stunning sunsets in the world, I reflected on what it would take to prioritise the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
I had just finished an intense three days with 170 local and global organisations, such as the conservation organisation WWF, businesses, investors and policymakers on how the world should expand the scale of impact investing in the Sustainable Development Goals in Sabah and beyond.
The UN agreed on its 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, and over 10 years later, only 18 per cent of the goals seem to be achievable by 2030. So far, progress has been weak – insufficient impact, nowhere near enough money and a lack of political will.
If delivering environmental and social justice is the task at hand, we need to prioritise problems, fix them and then show everyone the results. Complaining gets you nowhere. People believe results. But we must start small, think big and act at scale. Where should the focus be if we want to deliver impact on biodiversity, water, food and energy?
The Amazon, Borneo and the Hindu Kush Himalaya are not just fascinating ecosystems; they form the planetary frontier for experimentation and action on climate stability, biodiversity and human survival.
Combined, these regions hold vast swathes of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon. The Amazon, Hindu Kush Himalaya and Borneo sustain at least one-quarter of all known species. These regions also secure water, food and energy for billions of people. But the threats are daunting: deforestation, peat destruction, glacial melt and short-sighted uncoordinated development risk triggering irreversible tipping points that will harm people the world over.

Each region has its own unique features. The Amazon rainforest spans nine countries and holds more than 120 billion tonnes of carbon. The mighty Amazon river carries one-fifth of all the water that runs off the Earth’s surface and is home to 47 million people. Slash-and-burn agriculture for industrial output has cut 18 per cent of its original forest, and if global warming accelerates, the world’s largest rainforest could turn permanently into a savanna – altering global weather patterns forever.
The Hindu Kush Himalaya is considered the world’s “third pole”, with glacial coverage comparable to the North and South Poles and holding much of the world’s high-altitude ice, but it is warming two to five times faster than the global average. Its glaciers feed 10 major rivers that sustain around 2 billion people. If these glaciers disappear, they will trigger huge floods or droughts, threatening heat and food crises for nearly one quarter of mankind in South Asia alone.
Borneo, where Sabah is located on the Malaysian side, is the smallest of the three regions by area and population, but it packs some of the highest carbon density on Earth, storing nearly 40 billion tonnes in its vast peatlands. Sabah’s blue economy – with globally acclaimed dive sites and 59 per cent of Malaysia’s mangroves – has contributed substantially to the state’s economy and supports thousands of livelihoods.
But Sabah and Borneo at large are also at extreme risk: more than 30 per cent of original forest has been cleared, and peatlands exposed to industrial agriculture release methane that adds to global warming. Borneo has roughly the same number – 2.2 million – of indigenous people who protect the forest, rivers and seas as the Amazon.

The economics are clear. According to a study published by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, investing in conservation of Southeast Asia’s forests and seas alone could produce benefits valued at over US$2 trillion a year. Investing in the Amazon, Borneo and the Hindu Kush could return huge benefits in terms of avoiding extreme heat and water stress while also finding solutions for sustainable and inclusive productivity at scale.
Impact investing calls for finding blended sources of capital from charitable foundations, friends and family, retained profits and mainstream equity markets, banking, insurance, and pension and sovereign wealth funds to create change at scale. We need money, technology and markets to help communities protect nature.
We also need pilot projects and pioneer eco-warriors to show the way. By listening to its passionate civil society movements, particularly from the indigenous tribes, Sabah can show the world how to close this gap.
It is uniquely positioned to combine four finance streams unavailable together elsewhere: terrestrial forest carbon, peat carbon, blue carbon from mangroves and reefs, and premium markets for sustainable palm oil, seafood and ecotourism. Sabah straddles the highlands of Mount Kinabalu, like the Himalayas, and the Kinabatangan River basin, offering a micro-model for the Amazon.
The choice is clear: we either treat the Amazon, Borneo and the Hindu Kush Himalaya regions as separate crisis spots, or act together to secure the systems that keep our climate stable, our food growing and our water, energy and economies accessible. Sabah offers us lessons that can be scaled to the Amazon, Borneo and the Himalayas.
This involves thinking globally, framing regionally and acting locally. This fusion of urgency, integration and forward-looking policy makes Sabah the ideal global pilot. Its 2025 Climate Change and Carbon Governance Enactment enshrines the need for those engaging in carbon activities to consult the indigenous community and creates a unified registry for mitigation efforts.
It’s time to stop preaching and start acting. The risks of not acting are higher than those of being the path-maker and thought-leader hub of climate action.


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Opinion

World Opinion

News

World

Coordinated action on three vulnerable frontline regions can provide a template for how policymakers can serve the people and the planet


Coordinated action on three vulnerable frontline regions can provide a template for how policymakers can serve the people and the planet.


Environment

United Nations

Business of climate change

Energy

Climate change diplomacy

ESG investing

Extreme weather

Conservation

Sustainability

Malaysia

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


To tackle the climate crisis, start small, think big and act at scale

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Coordinated action on three vulnerable frontline regions can provide a template for how policymakers can serve the people and the planet

Coordinated action on three vulnerable frontline regions can provide a template for how policymakers can serve the people and the planet