Indonesian sky less polluted, govt claims

Friday, 16 January 2009

The Jakarta Post

The government claims to have significantly cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, contradicting international reports that rank Indonesia among the world’s top polluters.

A draft report by the government says the country’s total emissions between 2000 and 2006 averaged around 640,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, compared to 950,000 gigatons in 1994.

“But, we still need to factor in emissions from peatland sources into our calculations before launching the report hopefully in March,” Masnellyarti Hilman, deputy director for nature conservation enhancement and environment degradation control at the environment minister office told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The forestry and energy sectors remained the main polluters, contributing to 72 percent of the country’s total emissions.

The draft report places solid waste as the second-worst polluter with 16 percent, followed by the agriculture and industrial sectors contributing 8 and 4 percent respectively.

Indonesia’s most recent inventory of greenhouse gas emissions was conducted in 1994 and the report was submitted to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1999.

The UN requires wealthier signatory nations of the Kyoto Protocol to submit their emission inventory data every year.

Developing countries, including Indonesia, can voluntarily submit a national communication report. The emission reports are used by countries to devise strategies to deal with the impacts of climate change.  

The British Department for International Development and Consultancy firm Peace said Indonesia’s rapid deforestation meant it ranked third worst globally for emitting greenhouse gases.  

The world’s largest emitter, the United States, releases 6,000 million tons of CO2 annually, followed by China with 5,000 million tons. The majority of the emissions in both countries originated from the energy sector.

Indonesia’s annual emissions are mainly generated from land use and forest destruction.

Conservation group Wetlands International claimed Indonesia’s greenhouse emissions from peatland reached 2 billion tons of CO2 per, exceeding emissions from India and Russia and almost tripling the annual emissions of Germany or Britain.

The government has repeatedly denied such reports but failed to provide alternative data.

Speaking at the business forum organized by the policy consultant PT Strategic Asia Indonesia, Masnellyarti said the government planned to further cut the country’s emissions in all sectors.

“The implementation of the 2006 presidential decree on energy will cut 17 percent of the country’s emissions from the energy sector,” she said.

In addition, the use of geothermal energy as an alternative source could also help slash the energy sector’s emissions by 20 percent.

“If we use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, we could cut about 40 percent of energy emissions,” she said.

She said the government would increase carbon absorption through forest rehabilitation and reducing forest fires.

Masnellyarti also called on the business community to preserve power in the office by simply taking a little extra care, saying her office had reduced 25 percent of its budget through energy saving programs.

“If all offices and houses save energy, we will continue to reduce emissions,” she said.