Indonesia Needs $9b To Reach Carbon Emissions Target

Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 14 Jan 10;

Indonesia will need at least Rp 83 trillion ($9 billion) to finance efforts to reduce its carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, and another Rp 85 trillion in international support if it is to achieve the more ambitious 41 percent emissions cut target, an environment official said on Wednesday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the bold emissions cut pledge at a G-20 meeting in the United States last year.

“The numbers were agreed to at a meeting between each [relevant] government agency and the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy,” said Sulistyowati, assistant deputy for climate change impact control at the ministry.

“We don’t have the budget breakdown yet for each sector and it can still change because the RPJM [the Medium-Term National Development Plan] has not been approved yet, but that’s the amount that has been approved.”

She said the government had still not decided on whether the funding to achieve the 26 percent figure would be allocated from the state budget or through international assistance.

But the head of the climate change working group at the Ministry of Forestry, Wandojo Siswanto, said it should come from the state budget because meeting the emissions cut target was a national effort.

Sulistyowati also said the government was now looking at seven sectors to meet the emissions cut target, up from the original three. Initially, the cuts were only going to come from the forestry, energy and solid waste sectors. The new plan includes peatland, transportation, industry and agriculture.

“The biggest cuts are coming in the forestry sector, with 13.3 percent coming from land-use change and 9.5 percent from peatland [management]. The rest will come from the other five sectors,” she said. “Why did they get the biggest portion? Because, based on the country’s emissions inventory, land-use change contributed 48 percent of emissions, peat fires 12 percent, energy 21 percent, waste 11 percent, agriculture 5 percent, industry 3 percent and transportation 0.3 percent.”

Sulistyowati said the breakdown of the 26 percent target could still change as each sector was still determining what reductions they could make.

This new breakdown of how the 26 percent target would be met is the third version released by the government.

Last October, former Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the cuts would be generated from two sectors. He said 17 percent of the reductions would come from the energy sector through energy efficiency and renewable energy, and 9 percent from the forestry sector through a reduction in illegal logging, forest fires and improved peatland management.

Less than two months later, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, those figures changed, with newly installed State Minister for the Environment Gusti Muhammad Hatta saying that 14 percent of the emissions reductions would come from the forestry sector through reforestation programs and the reduction of deforestation and degradation, 6 percent from the energy sector through energy management and 6 percent through waste management schemes.

Sulistyowati said the plan would be presented to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as required.

“Indonesia, as a developing country, is obliged to submit NAMAs [Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions] to the UN by the end of this month in order to follow the Bali Action Plan, which requires [actions to mitigate the impact of climate change] to be measurable, reportable and verifiable,” she said.

Indonesia ready for binding targets on emissions reduction
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 15 Jan 10;

State Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta has insisted that Indonesia will submit an official report on the country’s emissions cuts target to the United Nation by the end of this month, which will bind Indonesia to emissions reduction.

The Copenhagen accord obliges each country adopting the accord to submit a report outlining emissions cuts targets, including detailed plans to meet the pledged target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by Jan. 31 at the latest.

“We will meet the deadline, although we have not yet finished the details on how to reach the targets,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Hatta admitted that once the report was submitted to the UN secretariat, Indonesia would be bound to slashing its emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

“But we are ready for that [obligation],” he said.

Indonesia is one of 26 countries which signed the accord during the Copenhagen meeting last December. 192 countries are members of the UNFCCC.

It is not yet clear whether all the countries would submit their emission reports to the UNFCCC because most of them have not signed the accord.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono named Hatta’s office as responsible for coordinating other departments in slashing their emissions.

Indonesia was the first developing country to announce emissions cuts targets of 26 percent by 2020, 41 percent with international support after developed nations refused to put emissions targets on negotiation table.

Developing countries are not bound to emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol, the only binding treaty on emission reductions, requires only developed nations to cut emissions by 5 percent until 2012. when the Protocol expires. Most countries have failed to meet the target.

The Copenhagen meeting failed to reach a new legally-binding treaty on emissions cuts.

But a number of countries have announced their emissions cuts targets to be included in the Copenhagen accord.

The United States pledged to cut 17 percent of emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels, equal to only about 3 to 4 percent from 1990 bases.

In contrast, China has promised to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2020, while India has offered a 20 percent cut by 2020.

A draft report on emissions targets from the State Environment Ministry showed that with the 26 percent target, Indonesia should cut about 0.7 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) with an expected cost of Rp 83.3 trillion.

If developed nations provided Rp 168 trillion, Indonesia could slash its emission by another 15 percent to meet the pledged 41 percent.

It said if business runs as usual, Indonesia would emit some 2.95 billion tons of CO2 in 2020, of which 48 percent would come from land conversion and the forestry sector, 21 percent from the energy sector, 12 percent from peat fires, and 11 percent from waste management.

The draft said emissions cuts would be focused on those sectors.

“We are still formulating the emissions cuts from each sector and where will it take place,” he said.

He admitted his office had reached an agreement with the Public Works Ministry on how to cut emissions from the waste management sector.

Hatta’s office said earlier that it would enforce the 2008 law on solid waste that required all districts to change from open dumping to more sanitary landfill systems and to separate methane (CH4) and use it as a source of electricity.