Minister Of Environment And Forestry Siti Nurbaya Affirms RI's Commitment To Control Climate Change

Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya

JAKARTA - Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif, and Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Suryopratomo affirmed Indonesia's ambition and commitment in contributing to climate change control at the Climate Leaders Massage Event, Thursday 28 October.

Ahead of the Glasgow Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, Indonesia has long since prepared itself to contribute optimally to the global community.

Through climate ambitions that have been recorded in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Updated NDC Indonesia, as well as the Long-term Strategy on Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050 (LTS-LCCR 2050) document submitted to the UNFCCC in July 2021, as a mandate from Paris Agreement, which has also been ratified into Law Number 16 of 2016 concerning Ratification of the Paris Agreement To The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change.

"In Glasgow, we will reinforce our commitment and ambition in controlling climate change by holding the earth's temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. That commitment is a firmness between commitment and implementation. Instruction from Mr. President that we should promise what we can work on in a realistic way or what we are justified to be able to work on that," said Minister Siti in a press release received by the editor.

Minister Siti also revealed that in the last 6-7 years period, the Government and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry she leads have worked on in relation to efforts to control climate change. Good cooperation from parties ranging from the Government, Society, Business World, Academics, Activists, and the Media is a determining factor for the success of various major work-chasing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia.

"We will provide the world with real working examples of climate change control," she added.

Indonesia's leadership in climate change control actions is recognized by the international community. Indonesia is considered an important country in the world with all its achievements and the issue of climate change. Indonesia has shown quite good leadership by example, even one of the best in the world.

An effective combination of policy, empowerment, and law enforcement in Indonesia has succeeded in reducing Indonesia's deforestation rate to its lowest level in history. On the issue of forest and land fires management, Indonesia has succeeded in reducing forest and land fires by up to 82% when several regions in America, Australia, and Europe experienced a significant increase in the incidence of forest and land fires. Indonesia has also managed to avoid the so-called double disaster, namely forest fires that cause smoke to occur in parallel with the COVID-19 outbreak, during the two-year pandemic (2020-2021).

Indonesia is also aggressively protecting coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests, seagrass, and coral reefs as well as peatlands, which are scientifically proven to have many times the ability to absorb and store carbon compared to tropical forests on land. For this reason, Indonesia has announced an initiative to restore 600 thousand hectares of damaged mangrove forests over the next three years until 2024.

The large contribution of the forest and land sector in the last 6-7 years in reducing carbon emissions has become the basis of the Forest and Land Use (FoLU) Netsink agenda in 2030 which is carried out by Indonesia as a big ambition that is measurable at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference (COP26) later. 60% of Indonesia's emissions are known to come from the FoLU sector, for that Indonesia is targeting the 2030 FoLU netsink, which means that in 2030 the absorption of carbon emissions in the forestry and land sectors will be balanced or even higher than the emission level.

"For 6-7 years with hard work that has been done together, the FoLU carbon netsink target is optimistic that we can achieve it in 2030," he said.

Minister Siti also appreciated the initiatives that came out of the community to actively participate in efforts to control climate change through simple daily activities. This community initiative, she said, is an important social capital and becomes the capital of the Indonesian nation to successfully carry out environmentally friendly development and also to mature the democratic climate in Indonesia.

In line with this, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said that the Indonesian energy sector would contribute to efforts to control climate change, primarily by reducing exhaust emissions from industry and transportation.

"The energy sector does not lag behind in reducing exhaust emissions. This effort is made because the reduction in the greenhouse effect will not be sustainable if it is not followed by a reduction in emissions from the exhaust gas of the fuel we use," she said.

The steps to reduce exhaust gas from the energy sector, according to her, have started with the use of bioenergy, encouraging the use of electric vehicles, converting fossil energy power plants into cleaner and renewable energy such as biodiesel, hydropower, solar, wind, and geothermal energy, as well as the potential for the other new renewable energy.

"The use of bioenergy has proven to have little effect on engine performance. This certainly gives a positive signal for efforts to reduce energy from fossils. We should be grateful because Indonesia has many alternative energy sources," he explained.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore, Suryopratomo, highlighted the importance of all parties, both at the national and global levels, to protect nature in order to avoid climate change.

"We feel that the earth has experienced a more severe level of destruction at this time, the last 150 years the earth has completely changed. This is what should awaken us all to how to save the earth together, how to prevent global warming, which will result in changes in ecosystems and will make sentient beings face calamity," she said.

She also stated that the meeting at Glasgow COP 26 later was a very important activity to work together to save the earth. She said that Indonesia has been trying to make a contribution since the beginning, because Indonesia has a wealth of natural resources, germplasm, and is considered the lungs of the world, as well as coral reefs, as well as mangroves that can absorb CO2 so much from exhaust emissions due to activities in the industrial and transportation sector that can change the earth's temperature to be warmer.