Camelia Pasandaran Jakarta Globe 10 Jun 10;
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday acknowledged that Indonesia lacked credibility in managing environmental grants as it sought billions of dollars in foreign aid to battle climate change, and demanded that local institutions shape up.
“I call for you to ensure [Indonesia] has global credibility, to make it a reality and do it,” Yudhoyono told ministers before a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace. “I called for all institutions in this nation to do the same. This is the reason for reform. We can turn the trust deficit into a trust surplus.”
He was responding to a memo from the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4) regarding bilateral environmental agreements, such as a deal with Norway to curb deforestation.
Yudhoyono, UKP4 head Kuntoro Mangkusubroto and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa all declined to elaborate on the memo.
Under the terms of the recently signed pact with Norway, Indonesia agreed to cut its carbon emissions from the forestry sector significantly in return for a $1 billion grant.
Hatta said a fifth of the grant would be disbursed by next year, at which point Indonesia would be expected to have a pilot project in place for the emissions-reduction program that could be replicated across the country’s large swaths of forest.
“The grant will be disbursed based on the amount of forests protected and the emissions reduced,” Hatta said. “There will be calculations for this, and the disbursement will be based on the progress made.”
He said the government would manage the funds through a trust, which would be run by nongovernmental organizations, forest-dwelling communities and other stakeholders.
Yudhoyono said the lack of faith abroad in the country should not signal defeat for the emissions-reduction program.
“The problem — and don’t be upset or downhearted about this — is that the international community doesn’t really trust institutions in most developing countries, ours included,” the president said.
“They want sureties that such institutions will manage grants in a credible way without violations, particularly corruption.
“I take no offense at this, because we really do need to strengthen our institutions and their credibility,” Yudhoyono said.
“It’s best to treat this problem as the motivation we need to ensure our institutions become more credible,” he said.
Indonesia has 'trust deficit': Yudhoyono
Business Times 11 Jun 10;
(JAKARTA) Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday acknowledged that his country lacked credibility as it seeks billions of dollars from foreign governments to battle climate change.
He said Indonesia suffered a 'trust deficit' in the international community that was hampering its ability to win backing for initiatives such as a moratorium on deforestation and cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
'This is the reason for reform. We can turn the trust deficit into a trust surplus. Let's be sure that the institutions in this country are credible,' he said at a weekly Cabinet meeting.
Indonesia is one of the top emitters of climate-warming gases blamed for rising global temperatures, largely through deforestation due to illegal logging and clearing for palm oil plantations, experts say.
Mr Yudhoyono shocked environmentalists and palm planters last month when he announced a two-year moratorium on deforestation from 2011 in exchange for a billion dollars in financial support from Norway. But no one knows how the moratorium will work in a country where experts say illegal logging is rampant and the government's figures about deforestation rates are seen as wildly inaccurate.
'All institutions in this country must be credible so that there are no obstacles when we seek cooperation with friendly countries and the international community,' Mr Yudhoyono said, referring to the pact with Norway.
At December's Copenhagen climate summit, six nations pledged a total of US$3.5 billion to help developing countries fight forest loss, seen as a leading cause of global warming.
Under a deal signed last month, Norway will contribute up to US$1 billion to help preserve Indonesian forests from 2014, but only as long as Indonesia makes verifiable progress in halting deforestation.
The verifiability of such initiatives is crucial to broader UN-backed efforts to link developed-world climate change funds to forest conservation in developing countries like Indonesia and Brazil. -- AFP
