Reuters Yahoo News 18 Feb 19;
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's two presidential candidates pledged on Sunday to achieve energy self-sufficiency by boosting the use of bioenergy, particularly fueled by palm oil, to cut costly oil imports by Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, has been pushing for all diesel fuel used in the country to contain biodiesel to boost palm consumption, slash fuel imports, and narrow a yawning current account gap.
In a televised election debate, President Joko Widodo said if he won a second term the government planned to implement a B100 program, referring to fuel made entirely from palm oil, after last year making it mandatory to use biodiesel containing 20 percent bio-content (B20).
"We hope 30 percent of total palm production will go to biofuel. The plan is clear, so we will not rely on imported oil," Widodo said, adding that Indonesia's crude palm oil production had reached 46 million tonnes a year.
Agreeing on the importance of bioenergy for self-sufficiency, his opponent Prabowo Subianto said if elected he would also "boost the use of palm oil, palm sugar, cassava and ethanol from sugar (cane)".
The challenger did not elaborate on his bioenergy plan, but his campaign team has proposed using millions of hectares of degraded land to cultivate palm sugar to produce energy.
Widodo's government has previously said it would offer incentives for developers of B100, which the net oil importer hopes can replace fuel imports within three years.
Indonesia's state energy company PT Pertamina has signed an agreement with Italian oil company Eni to develop a refinery in Indonesia that would produce fuel completely derived from crude palm oil (CPO).
Oil imports have contributed to Indonesia's widening current account deficit and the volatility of the rupiah currency. The government claimed that its biodiesel program would save billions of dollars in diesel fuel imports.
Although retired general Prabowo agreed with Widodo on several points during the debate, he said Indonesia's "land and water, and the resources within" must be controlled by the government.
"We are of the view that the government must be present in detail, thoroughly, firmly and actively to correct inequalities in wealth," he said.
The challenger said the proportion of small farmers' holdings in the country's palm plantations should also be larger. Smallholders currently account for roughly 40 percent of Indonesia's 12 million hectares of palm oil plantations.
Both candidates expressed support for greater control of Indonesian natural resources.
President Widodo hightlighted Pertamina's takeover of stewardship of major oil and gas blocks from foreign operators, and an agreement for a state company to purchase a 51 percent stake in the giant Grasberg copper mine from Freeport McMoRan.
(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy and Tabita Diela; Editing by Ed Davies and Jan Harvey)
Prabowo vows to take stern measures against environmental polluters
Antara 17 Feb 19;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto would take stern measures against companies that caused environmental damage, if he is elected president for the 2019-2024 term.
"If I am given the mandate to lead the government of the Republic of Indonesia, I will certainly enforce the law. Stern law enforcement is a must against companies that do not implement the regulation," Subianto said at the second round of presidential debate here on Sunday.
For decades, he said, large companies in many regions in the country have violated legal provisions and left the waste unmanaged. They did not pay tax that actually would be used to clean up waste, and be in collusion with officials to escape from their obligation.
"We want to get rid of environmental polluters," he said.
Prabowo also conveyed to tighten the requirements for environmental impacts assessment and there would be no short cuts to obtain the license.
"This is, again, a matter of commitment. I will uphold a clean government that will not be collusive with environmental polluters," he said.
If he is elected president for the 2019-2024 period, Prabowo would reorganize the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and separate it into Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Forestry.
The ministry of environment, according to him, must oversee the companies who run businesses especially in forestry sector, to prevent them from violating laws on environment.
Responding to Prabowo`s statement, incumbent president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) stated that his administration has sanctioned 11 companies involved in forest and land fires in Indonesia.
The total sanction amounted to Rp18.3 trillion.
According to Jokowi, the government has proven its efforts to overcome forest and peatland fires in the past three years by strengthening the law enforcement.
"In terms law enforcement, we are strict in (the fight against) environmental violations," Jokowi said.
He also stated that the current administration had begun to clean polluted rivers, including one in Citarum River of West Java.
Environment is part of the topics in this evening`s second debate held at the Sultan Hotel, in addition to infrastructure, energy and food.
Presidential debate fails to mention climate change impacts: Walhi
Antara 28 Feb 19;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) has expressed disappointment with Indonesia`s presidential candidates for failing to mention the climate change impacts and forest issue during the second round of the presidential election debate on Sunday evening.
"It is a bit awful because climate change impacts and forest issues were not mentioned," Yuyun Harmono, campaign manager for climate justice of Walhi, said here on Monday.
The climate change is in fact an issue that covers every aspect, he stated. It is quite scary, from the climate change context, to learn about the optimism of both candidates over oil palm plantation, he noted.
Oil palm plantation and coal mining activities are both major contributors to emission, he remarked.
If the two candidates still rely on oil palm and coal, it means they do not see the point of climate change, he added.
They fail to link the economic policy and efforts to control the impacts of climate change, he revealed.
"What worries me is that the Environmental Affairs and Forestry Minister has asked the Director General for Climate Change Control to review our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), in order to speed up the target to press the Earth`s temperature increase below 1.5 degree Celsius from 2020 to 2019," he explained.
The ministry has prepared measures for cutting emissions by accelerating mitigation efforts, he noted.
The ministry has realized that the major contributors to emission are plantation and energy-based factors, he elaborated.
However, he regretted that the two candidates failed to consider the crucial issue.
"No one related their economic policy to climate change issue. This is worrying," he stated.
Incumbent Joko Widodo and rival Prabowo Subianto faced off during the second round of the presidential election debate themed ?energy, the environment, infrastructure, food, and natural resources,? on Sunday evening (Feb 17).
Indonesia will hold the simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17, 2019.
Forest fires become burning issue as Indonesia's election fight heats up
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Straits Times 18 Feb 19;
JAKARTA - A day after Indonesia's two presidential candidates went head-to-head on issues ranging from the economy to the environment, campaign managers from both camps exchanged heated arguments on Monday (Feb 18), and one topic that stood out was forest fire mitigation.
The follow-up arguments were seen as their move to pick up leftovers from the televised 90-minute encounter in a Jakarta hotel on Sunday night where both men outlined their competing views.
Incumbent Joko Widodo, 57, popularly known as Jokowi, who is seeking a second and final five-year term in office, faces a sole challenger, 67-year-old former army general Prabowo Subianto, in the next general election on April 17.
Sunday night's debate - in which candidates tried to sway undecided voters, reported to number more than 10 per cent of the total 190 million registered voters - was the second of five scheduled before the election. The next one will be held on March 17.
A Twitter-survey of more than 52,000 Elshinta radio listeners held after the debate revealed that 64 per cent would support Mr Joko and 34 per cent Mr Prabowo, while 2 per cent were undecided.
Economist Drajad Wibowo, a senior member of Mr Prabowo's campaign team, accused Mr Joko of making false claims during the debate.
"He said no more forest fires but the facts on the ground clearly refuted that," he told the popular Elshinta Radio station. "In August 2018, schools in Pontianak, West Kalimantan were temporarily shut due to forest fire."
Public and private schools in Pontianak were ordered last year by its West Kalimantan provincial government to close for three days from Aug 20 as the provincial capital was shrouded by choking haze from uncontrolled forest and plantation fires nearby.
Kalimantan is a major island in Indonesia which has an abundance of oil palm plantations.
Senior politician Lukman Edy, representing Mr Joko's campaign team, responded by explaining that what Mr Joko meant to say was that the current administration managed to reduce forest and plantation fires by introducing stricter law enforcement and prevention measures.
"During Jokowi's tenure, forest fires have been handled quickly and the problem did not persist," Mr Lukman argued, pointing out that during Mr Joko's tenure the administration only witnessed one major fire in 2015, while previously such fires were annual events.
"We almost never have forest fires any more. Lately, there were hot spots emerging, but firefighting teams promptly handled them. Forest fires are unavoidable, but the government now is there to deal with them, so the problem does not drag on."
Dr Drajad also took issue with the administration's claim of having constructed 191,000km of village roads in the first four years of his five-year term, a figure Mr Dradjad found "impossible" - saying that such a distance was almost five times Earth's equatorial circumference.
Mr Lukman explained that the village roads are not built in straight lines and therefore such a comparison could not be drawn.
Presidential debate lacked environmental focus
Fardah Assegaf Antara 29 Feb 19;
Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - The second round of presidential election debate, held on Feb 17, 2019, was considered more interesting, but environmental NGOs were disappointed because major environmental issues, such as climate change, were not touched upon by both presidential candidates.
Incumbent Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and his challenger Prabowo Subianto discussed five themes, namely food, energy, infrastructure, natural resources, and the environment, chosen by the General Election Commission, during the debate, but they failed to see a common thread of the five themes, as they treated each theme separately.
Besides, they were seen as lacking substantive plans offered in their debates.
During the debate, Subianto vowed to take stern measures against companies that caused environmental damages if he is elected president for the 2019-2024 term.
"If I am given the mandate to lead the government of the Republic of Indonesia, I will certainly enforce the law. Stern law enforcement is a must against companies that do not implement the regulation," Subianto stated, emphasizing on firm legal enforcement to protect the environment.
Subianto also promised to tighten the requirements for environmental impacts assessment and stated that there would be no short cuts to obtain project licenses.
"This is, again, a matter of commitment. I will uphold a clean government that will not be collusive with environmental violators," he added.
If he is elected president for the 2019-2024 period, he would reorganize the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and separate it into the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Forestry.
Responding to Subianto?s statement, Jokowi remarked that his administration has sanctioned 11 companies involved in forest and land fires in Indonesia. The total sanction amounted to Rp18.3 trillion.
According to Jokowi, the government has been successful in overcoming forest and peatland fires in the past three years by strengthening the law enforcement.
He also stated that the current administration had started to clean polluted rivers, including one in Citarum River of West Java.
Jokowi also vowed to reduce fossil fuel consumption by encouraging the use of more biofuel and green fuel.
The government has begun production of B20, a blend of 20 percent of biofuel with diesel, and it would proceed with the production of B100, which contains 100 percent of biofuel, he explained.
Commenting on the substances of the debate, an NGO activist viewed that both candidates failed to make environmental issues a focus of their statements.
"Both candidates still view the issues of food, energy, infrastructure, natural resources, and the environment as separate issues," Anggalia Putri, manager of knowledge management of the Madani Sustainable Foundation, revealed on Feb 18, 2019.
They failed to see that the environment correlates with other issues and is even a major engine of the issues, she added.
Jokowi emphasized on various policies, programs, and projects concerning the five themes of the debate. However, he did not elaborate much on the basic problems and the solutions, according to the NGO activist.
"The discussions treat the five themes separately, as if they have no correlations with each other," she stated.
Meanwhile, Subianto used populist words, such as independence, self-reliance, and national ownership versus foreign ownership.
"But, he did not explain about the concepts on how to achieve food self-reliance and others," she added.
The two candidates also did not mention about deforestation, forest degradation, and environmental rehabilitation during the debate, she stated.
Another criticism came from the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), which expressed disappointment with the candidates for failing to mention the climate change impacts and forest issue.
"It is a bit awful because climate change impacts and forest issues were not mentioned," Yuyun Harmono, campaign manager for climate justice of Walhi, revealed.
The climate change is in fact an issue that covers every aspect, he noted. It is quite scary, from the climate change context, to learn about the optimism of both candidates over oil palm plantation, he revealed.
Oil palm plantation and coal mining activities are both major contributors to emission, he remarked.
If the two candidates still rely on oil palm and coal, it means they do not see the point of climate change, he added.
They fail to link the economic policy and efforts to control the impacts of climate change, he revealed.
"What worries me is that the Environmental Affairs and Forestry Minister has asked the Director General for Climate Change Control to review our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), in order to speed up the target to press the Earth`s temperature increase below 1.5 degree Celsius from 2020 to 2019," he explained.
The ministry has prepared measures for cutting emissions by accelerating mitigation efforts, he explained.
The ministry has realized that the major contributors to emission are plantation and energy-based factors, he elaborated.
However, he regretted that the two candidates failed to consider the crucial issue.
"No one related their economic policy to climate change issue. This is worrying," he stated.
The impacts of climate change are apparent in Indonesia, such as rising sea levels, change in precipitation patterns, decrease in agriculture and fishery production, and increase in drought, flooding, and some vector-borne diseases.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace Indonesia was concerned by both presidential candidates` emphasis on the use of crude palm oil for developing biofuels, because it potentially contributed to an increasing rate of deforestation.
Indonesia is one of the world`s largest biodiversity nations and has the world`s third largest forest areas. The country has several environmental problems, such as deforestation and marine pollution, due to plastic wastes.
The country`s forest conversion into oil palm plantation has become a spotlight internationally because Indonesia`s forest is considered as the `lung? of the Earth for its function to absorb gas emission that has induced climate change.
In September 2009, the then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a commitment to reduce gas emissions by 26 percent of business-as-usual levels by 2020. But with international support, Indonesia can reduce emissions by as much as 41 percent.
Indonesia will hold the simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17, 2019.
Editing by Suharto
Editor: Suharto
