Prabowo's Government Gibran Is Expected To Support The Implementation Of Low Fuel In Sulfur

JAKARTA - Low sulfur fuel oil (BBM) is expected to be a priority policy during the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka administration to increase clean air.

Head of the Environmental Pollution and Damage Control Division of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) Fajri Fadhillah in a statement in Jakarta, Saturday stated, improving the quality of motorized vehicles will have a significant impact in reducing air pollution levels.

"Improving the quality of motorized fuel will affect reducing emissions and ultimately improve urban air quality. Besides of course, the main thing is to improve the quality and quantity of affordable public transportation for the wider community, especially the poor," said Fajri as quoted by Antara.

For this reason, he hopes that the Prabowo-Gibran government will be more assertive in implementing policies that can prevent fuel subsidies from being enjoyed by rich people and ensure that the budget is used to improve fuel quality.

"So that the cost of subsidies that were not right on target could actually be channeled for the need to improve production of low fuel sulfur. Here the test of the influence of conflicts of interest from the Prabowo-Gibran government will be tested," he said.

Public participation is also considered important in formulating environmental policies, including for low sulfur fuel.

According to Fajri, scientific justification regarding the low fuel benefits of sulfur is already available, but what needs to be awaited is whether a new government can open up space for participation for the community.

"The question is whether the Prabowo-Gibran government can implement public participation procedures in this policy. I can only comment further when looking at the composition of officials who will carry out their main duties and functions related to the low fuel sulfur problem," said Fajri.

In a separate statement, the Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) Puji Lestari also expressed his hope for the new government to support the use of low sulfur fuel as a solution to handling air pollution.

"My hope is that the new government, Pak Prabowo and Mas Gibran, can pay more attention to the handling of air pollution in Indonesia because the impact is quite large both on human health and the environment. It is time for Indonesia to implement low fuel sulfur as soon as possible," he said.

To note, Indonesia is facing major challenges in its efforts to reduce air pollution in large urban areas such as Jakarta.

In an effort to improve air quality and meet international environmental standards, the use of low sulfur fuel is one of the strategic policies that need to be considered by the government of the elected President and Vice President of Indonesia Prabowo-Gibran.