Minister Of Environment And Forestry Siti Nurbaya Corrects The Definition Of Carbon Issues

Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK) Siti Nurbaya. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK) Siti Nurbaya emphasized that the issue of carbon is seen as a form of service for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in discussions with Commission IV of the DPR RI.

"There is a dispute in its understanding, it is suspected that the sale of carbon is selling all carbon from our forests. In fact, how our services reduce emissions and continue to grow to increase carbon absorption. So that's roughly the case," said Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti in a written statement, quoted from Antara, Saturday, September 21.

Speaking in a focused group discussion with Commission IV of the DPR RI in Jakarta, last Friday (20/9), Siti explained that it was important for the Carbon Economic Value (NEK) to adhere to the principles contained in Law Number 16 of the 2016 Procedure concerning the Ratification of the Paris Agreement. This ensures that the Indonesian NEK policy must follow the provisions of the Paris Agreement.

Thus, he said, there are two sides that must be seen, namely supply and demand aspects. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry believes that carbon is not a commodity, but an emission reduction activity service with a CO2 size with supply or supply not only in stock from nature to be traded, but in the form of a carbon emission reduction service from activity, meaning that it is not merely a carbon offset.

Siti explained that the size of the NEK is the fulfillment of climate targets as stated in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) document which has been designated as a national commitment to the global community. Then, carbon services calculated with CO2 must be from high integrity environmentally or from steps of integrity.

"So it's not carbon origin, carbon is fake, it's not just recognition, so it's not just green washing. There are conditions for transparency, accountability, accuracy, competitive, complete, and consistent," said Siti in the discussion themed "Accelerated Development of Carbon Economic Values in Indonesia".

Furthermore, Minister Siti said that NEK is a constitutional mandate in accordance with Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution which states that there is a constitutional mandate of the people, because it comes from natural resources.

In carbon management, there is also the right of management/operation from business actors in order to reduce carbon emissions, which gets a mandate from the state through licensing or voluntarily from the community by planting trees.

There are also economic rights where NEK can provide economic benefits in the form of state revenues, which currently still need to be formulated with the Ministry of Finance.

The achievement of the carbon number also reflects Indonesia's performance or capacity among countries in the world.

"There is no need for any doubt that we can work with carbon emissions control as well as the economy can grow," said Siti Nurbaya.