Indonesian government preparing decree to cut emissions by 26 percent

Antara 22 Jan 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government is currently preparing a legal umbrella in the form of a presidential decree to achieve the target of greenhouse gas reduction by 26 percent nationwide by 2020.

"The legal umbrella in the form of a presidential decree is still being prepared," the environment minister`s deputy for improvement of natural resource conservation and control of environment destruction, Masnellyarti Hilman, said accompanying environment minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta in a press conference here on Thursday.

Masnellyarti said the legal umbrella was needed as the basis for implementing the program to be carried out by various government institutions led by the environment ministry.

"The environment ministry conducts cooperation in various sectors coordinated by the coordinating minister for economic affairs to determine sectors that have to cut emissions," she said.

She said the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) followed up the results of the coordination program in reducing gas emissions by implementing them into the National Action Plan for Dealing with Climate Change (RAN MAPI).

Based on the RAN MAPI six sectors targeted for emission reduction are energy, transportation, processing industry, agriculture, forestry, waste processing and emissions in peat lands.

Masnellyarti said based on the RAN MAPI the forestry sector would become the main target for emissions reduction by an equivalent 392 mega tons per year, followed by emissions reduction from peat lands by an equivalent of 48 mega tons a year and emissions reduction from waste processing by an equivalent of 48 mega tons a year.

The next sectors are energy by an equivalent fo 30 mega tons a year, transportation by an equivalent of eight mega tons a year, agriculture by an equivalent of eight megatons a year and processing industry by an equivalent of one megaton a year.

Masnellyarti said the six sectors had been elaborated in the National Communications II Indonesia report to the UNFCCC.

According to Law Number 32 of 2009 on environment protection and processing, the environment ministry is obliged to make an inventory of national greenhouse gas emissions.

"This will be used as the basis for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of the implementation of the efforts to achieve the target," she said.

As funding for the 26 percent emissions reduction program comes from home the MRV is carried out domestically based on methods and procedures set by the environment ministry.

"The environment ministry has prepared the system and procedures for MRV based on the IPCCC (inter-government panel on climate change)," she said.

On a separate occasion, Oxfam International East Asia Climate campaigner Rully Prayoga said it is more important for Indonesia to preparre adaptations and mitigation on the impact of climate change for the poor than targeting emissions reduction.

"As Indonesia is not a country obliged to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Kyoto Protocol Indonesia could create a pilot project or strategy for adapting to climate change," she said.

In view of that the most important thing is preparing legal means to deal with climate change problems such as laws or regulations so that implementation by ministries will not overlap, she said.(*)