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Traffic on street in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia on Monday, January 22, 2024. Sarawak's premier Abang Johari Openg rides around Malaysia's largest state in a gleaming black, hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai. The vast region on the island of Borneo, long a major producer of fossil fuels, also boasts hydrogen buses and is introducing autonomous trams that'll run on the gas. Refuelling pumps in the capital Kuching are being switched to the alternative fuel, and giant new industrial facilities will produce hydrogen for domestic power demand and to be exported globally. As other regions make tentative plans to embrace the clean-burning gas -- a potentially zero-emissions energy source that could help tame heavy polluting industries, Sarawak is rushing ahead. It's a test case not only for hydrogen's prospects as a climate solution, but also for the net zero ambitions of Japan and South Korea -- nations that see hydrogen as crucial to their decarbonisation plans and which are funding the state's frenzy of projects.