James Kon
One of the key strategies under the Brunei Darussalam National Climate Change Policy (BNCCP) is electric vehicles where Brunei is looking to increase the share of electric vehicles to 60 per cent of the total annual vehicle sales, while the share of renewable energy is to be increased to least 30 per cent of total capacity in the power generation mix said Permanent Secretary (Energy) at the Ministry of Energy Haji Azhar bin Haji Yahya, during a recent tree-planting event held at the new Recreational Park in Jalan Pusat Persidangan, to celebrate World Ozone Day 2020.
He further explained, “We are trying to come up with a pilot scheme by bringing a number of electric vehicles (EVs) into the country and increasing awareness.
“For this year, we hope to come up with a pilot scheme with less than 20 EVs. While we are going through other regulations like insurance, tax and others.
“It will take some time but we hope that following the pilot scheme, we can start to bring in EV cars to sell in the open market.
“EVs are well-received globally, especially in Europe and United States (US), and have been selling quite well, compared to countries in Southeast Asia.
“One of the key things is to provide the infrastructure like charging stations. We are planning to have a couple of charging stations, which is currently in discussion.
“Of course, we need to increase awareness of the advantage of EVs. Brunei is not very big, so from one end to the other is not a very long distance; a single charging of an EV can be used for up to 300km, which means it can last for a few days.
“If people can charge their EVs at home, it will be even more attractive and in the strategic objective of the climate change on EVs, our target is to have up to 60 per cent of sales for EVs by 2035. This is a good target to achieve.
“The key will be in the coming few years, where we will really kick-start EV sales, as a very good alternative for people to buy. Ideally every home should have one EV.”
Haji Azhar concluded his public message by saying, “Climate change is real! Most importantly, everyone should keep themselves well-informed on the impact of climate change. One can read in the papers and the media of the impact, such as the forest fires in Australia and California.
“Look at Brunei itself. We are already feeling the impact of the climate change, and the temperature is hotter now, compared to 10 years ago. There are more bush fires, flooding and stronger storms.” He urged, “Please participate individually or within an organisation. Support the government’s climate change policy. I encourage all companies and individuals to actively participate and contribute to attaining the targets in Brunei Darussalam’s National Climate Change Policy.”
