KINIGUIDE | The controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) between the Sabah government and a little-known Singaporean firm has raised a lot of concerns over the secrecy surrounding the deal as well as the legitimacy of the firm.

The deal involves the Sabah government engaging the services of Singaporean firm Hoch Standard to come up with nature conservation management plans and giving them the exclusive rights to trade carbon credits and other natural capital in designated areas.

This has inadvertently brought scrutiny upon the carbon emissions trading scheme, a market that has been gaining traction in Malaysia recently.

In Budget 2022, the federal government had pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had later said domestic carbon trading will be implemented in three phases by the end of 2022 in order to execute carbon credit transactions at the domestic level.

He had also said the federal government is looking into market design frameworks, registration and cooperation with developing international standards.

But what exactly is the carbon trading market, how does it work and what are its benefits and flaws?

In this KiniGuide, we take a closer look at...