Indonesia ready for binding targets on emissions reduction

Friday, 15 January 2010

The Jakarta Post

State Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta has insisted that Indonesia will submit an official report on the country’s emissions cuts target to the United Nation by the end of this month, which will bind Indonesia to emissions reduction.

The Copenhagen accord obliges each country adopting the accord to submit a report outlining emissions cuts targets, including detailed plans to meet the pledged target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by Jan. 31 at the latest 

“We will meet the deadline, although we have not yet finished the details on how to reach the targets,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Hatta admitted that once the report was submitted to the UN secretariat, Indonesia would be bound to slashing its emissions by 26 percent by 2020 

“But we are ready for that [obligation],” he said.

Indonesia is one of 26 countries which signed the accord during the Copenhagen meeting last December. 192 countries are members of the UNFCCC.

It is not yet clear whether all the countries would submit their emission reports to the UNFCCC because most of them have not signed the accord.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono named Hatta’s office as responsible for coordinating other departments in slashing their emissions.

Indonesia was the first developing country to announce emissions cuts targets of 26 percent by 2020, 41 percent with international support after developed nations refused to put emissions targets on negotiation table. Developing countries are not bound to emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol, the only binding treaty on emission reductions, requires only developed nations to cut emissions by 5 percent until 2012. when the Protocol expires. Most countries have failed to meet the target. The Copenhagen meeting failed to reach a new legally-binding treaty on emissions cuts. But a number of countries have announced their emissions cuts targets to be included in the Copenhagen accord.

The United States pledged to cut 17 percent of emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels, equal to only about 3 to 4 percent from 1990 bases. In contrast, China has promised to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2020, while India has offered a 20 percent cut by 2020.

A draft report on emissions targets from the State Environment Ministry showed that with the 26 percent target, Indonesia should cut about 0.7 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) with an expected cost of Rp 83.3 trillion.

If developed nations provided Rp 168 trillion, Indonesia could slash its emission by another 15 percent to meet the pledged 41 percent.

It said if business runs as usual, Indonesia would emit some 2.95 billion tons of CO2 in 2020, of which 48 percent would come from land conversion and the forestry sector, 21 percent from the energy sector, 12 percent from peat fires, and 11 percent from waste management.

The draft said emissions cuts would be focused on those sectors. “We are still formulating the emissions cuts from each sector and where will it take place,” he said. He admitted his office had reached an agreement with the Public Works Ministry on how to cut emissions from the waste management sector. Hatta’s office said earlier that it would enforce the 2008 law on solid waste that required all districts to change from open dumping to more sanitary landfill systems and to separate methane (CH4) and use it as a source of electricity.