Indonesia, Daewoo Sign $1.1 Billion Contract For 3 Submarines
Will Indonesia Work On Its Promise To Cut Carbon Emissions?
Thousands of delegates, including government heads and top climate negotiators from around the world, flew to Copenhagen last December for an international climate change summit. They returned home with only a barebones agreement.
The big climate report was in fact from Indonesia. Without much fanfare (partly because of last year's earthquake), Indonesia pledged to cut its carbon emissions by 26% from business-as-usual levels by 2020. This is to occur primarily by curtailing deforestation.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who made the pledge at climate change talks in Bangkok and during a visit to the U.S. last year, set an even more ambitious target should the United Nations and advanced industrial countries offer financial support--to cut carbon emissions by 41%.
"This target is entirely achievable because most of our emissions come from forest-related issues, such as forest fires and deforestation," he said during a speech in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. "We are also looking into the distinct possibility to commit a billion tons of CO2 reduction by 2050 from BAU. We will change the status of our forest from that of a net emitter sector to a net sink sector by 2030."
But doubt lingers, with environmentalists suggesting that the president's promise was more rhetorical than substantial. Indonesian environmentalists in particular received the news cautiously, despite praise from international environmental groups.
Environmentalists have reported that President Yudhoyono's environmental performance is poor and that his government has done little to stop the deforestation of more than two million hectares a year during his first term from 2004-2009. They pointed out that the SBY administration continued to issue forest conversion permits for mining operations, palm oil plantations, and logging operations on a massive scale.
Indonesia must regard climate change as a matter of great urgency.
Climate scientists have said man-made carbon emissions contribute significantly to climate change, and deforestation accounts for 20% of the world's total emissions. As Indonesia consists of a chain of several big islands and thousands of islets, it will likely be severely impacted by rising sea levels as a result of climate change.
The National Development Planning Agency has reported that rising sea levels will pose not only a natural disaster, but also national security crises such as shifting borders and community conflict deriving from an influx of refugees. Officials predict sea levels around Indonesia will rise by up to one meter by 2100, an occurrence that would submerge more than 2,000 small islands and islets.
In order to help prevent the worst of climate change, the government must dramatically reduce the rate of deforestation.
Comments
Actually carbon emission is really causes a bad effect on health.It will affect the health of the people around the country.
udage on January 3, 2012 3:51 AM
