[Jakarta, 29 August 2024] Indonesia is facing an urgent convergence of democratic and climate crises. As the deadline approaches for submitting the country’s second national climate commitment document—known as the Second Nationally Determined Contribution (SNDC)—which is expected in September 2024, a civil society coalition is calling on the Government to use this national document as a key moment to correct and strengthen Indonesia’s climate commitment toward a more just approach, through a more democratic and participatory process.
As stated by the Government in February, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) is currently preparing the document. In this context, MoEF represents the Government of Indonesia in the United Nations process addressing global climate change, namely the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“The Government must apply social justice by recognizing rights and meeting the specific needs of people who are vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as smallholder farmers, traditional fishers, Indigenous Peoples, and others. Only in this way can climate justice—or a just transition—be realized,” said Torry Kuswardono, Executive Director of Yayasan Pikul, during the launch of the document Recommendations for a Just SNDC, supported by 64 Indonesian civil society organizations. The document has been submitted to MoEF as civil society input.
Data from Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) show that climate-related disasters increased by 81%, from 1,945 incidents in 2010 to 3,544 incidents in 2022, affecting more than 20 million people.
The IPCC (2023) report notes that 79% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 came from the energy, industry, transport, and buildings sectors, while 22% came from agriculture, forestry, and other land use. These sectors contribute through land-use change and natural resource exploitation.
In response, the Government has introduced various climate policies, including a Net Zero Emissions target by 2060, Climate-Resilient Low Carbon Development, the National Energy Transition, Indonesia FOLU Net Sink 2030, and the Carbon Economic Value framework.
However, this ambition is still considered insufficiently aligned with the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C. Indonesia’s net-zero target of 2060 is also later than the international commitment to achieve net zero by 2050.
This means Indonesians are at risk. In particular, vulnerable groups—such as smallholder farmers, traditional fishers, Indigenous Peoples, workers and informal laborers, women, persons with disabilities, children, young people, older persons, and survivors of gender-based violence—bear the heaviest impacts of climate change. Climate injustice occurs when Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable communities suffer the greatest consequences despite contributing little to greenhouse gas emissions.
“Over the past ten years, we have seen climate action in Indonesia make vulnerable communities even more vulnerable. Instead of lowering greenhouse gas emission targets, development strategies have legitimized environmental destruction and the dispossession of vulnerable communities’ living spaces. Nickel mining, the Rempang industrial area, the Wadas case, and even the development of the Nusantara Capital City—claimed as a green, low-emission capital—have driven environmental damage and rights violations,” he added.
Indigenous Peoples, Farmers, Fishers, and Vulnerable Communities at Risk
The document Recommendations for a Just SNDC elaborates how vulnerable groups continue to suffer—both from climate impacts and from certain climate responses—despite not being the drivers of the crisis.
For example, in the previous commitment document, the Enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution (ENDC) issued in 2022, the Government stated its obligation to respect and promote human rights and Indigenous Peoples’ rights in addressing climate change.
Yet, a fundamental demand remains unmet: the recognition and protection of Indigenous territories and the rights attached to them. The Indigenous Territories Registration Agency (BRWA) has independently registered 30.2 million hectares of Indigenous territories, of which 23.2 million hectares are customary forests. However, over ten years of President Joko Widodo’s administration, only 1.1% of customary forests have been recognized—equivalent to just 265,250 hectares.
“Although Indigenous Peoples make up only 6.2% of the global population, they protect 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity and safeguard one-third of the world’s remaining intact forests,” said Ihsan Maulana, Policy Advocacy and Researcher at WGII.
From coastal areas, a 2023 survey by the Indonesian Traditional Fishers Union (KNTI) shows significant climate impacts on traditional fishers: 72% experienced declining catches, 83% saw reduced profits, and 86% reported increased accident risks.
“This situation highlights the critical challenges faced by traditional fishers due to climate change. While the state promotes fish as a nutritious food source, traditional fishers’ conditions are worsening,” said Hendra Wiguna, Chair of the Indonesian Coastal Youth and Student Union (KPPMPI), an autonomous body within KNTI.
For women, climate-driven drought has imposed additional burdens in securing water and food for families. In Kalikur and Tobotani villages in Lembata, East Nusa Tenggara, women must walk kilometers to find water.
Among Dayak Ngaju women in Kapuas Regency, local nutrient-rich seeds are no longer planted because planting seasons no longer match weather patterns, forcing households to purchase food from outside the village. In urban areas, household spending rises due to the cost of clean water.
“While women are among the most vulnerable groups, they also have some of the strongest resilience in facing climate change,” said Andriyeni, Program Coordinator at Solidaritas Perempuan.
For persons with disabilities, climate change increases vulnerability due to structural barriers and discrimination, including limited access to resources and strategic information.
“When climate disasters strike, persons with disabilities often become layered victims, with mortality rates four times higher due to the lack of inclusive access and support,” said Fatum Ade, Advocacy Coordinator at the Perhimpunan Jiwa Sehat (PJS).
According to Masagus Fathan from Climate Rangers Jakarta, net-zero commitments must also address intergenerational justice through partnerships and community-based funding distribution. The IPCC Synthesis Report 2023 notes that, across scenarios, people born between 1980–2020 are expected to face 0.5–3°C higher temperature increases over their lifetimes compared to those born between 1950–1980.
Syaharani, Acting Head of the Environmental Governance and Climate Justice Division at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), emphasized that a transition to renewable energy is the first precondition for climate justice.
“This Second NDC needs to target Indonesia achieving 60% renewable energy by 2030 in line with the 1.5°C pathway,” she said.
From an urban perspective, Abdul Ghofar, Pollution and Urban Campaign Manager at WALHI, noted that waste sector emissions ranked among the top three sources during 2015–2022, increasing by 33.47% over seven years—from 97.539 gigatons of CO₂ in 2015 to 130.188 GtCO₂e in 2022.
“The Government must take serious and ambitious steps to reduce waste-sector emissions, particularly by reducing methane emissions from municipal solid waste—through reducing organic waste sent to landfills and other measures such as banning open burning, incineration in waste-to-energy facilities, and co-firing in coal power plants and cement factories,” he said.
In line with this, Nadia Hadad, Executive Director of Yayasan MADANI Berkelanjutan, stressed that ecosystem protection across landscapes must be prioritized in responding to the climate crisis. In the ENDC, the forestry and land use (FOLU) sector carries 55% of Indonesia’s emission reduction burden and is often viewed primarily as a carbon sink. Yet its role goes far beyond carbon.
“Emission reduction efforts must be seen holistically and ecosystem-based—not focused solely on carbon economics, but on ensuring communities have the capacity to survive amid the climate crisis,” Nadia said.
Civil Society Demands Immediate Government Action
In response to the ongoing democratic and climate crises in Indonesia, civil society organizations urge the Government to take the following decisive actions:
Safeguard democracy and constitutional human rights protections: Protect democratic principles, ensure all voices—especially vulnerable groups—are heard and respected in climate decision-making, and stop any form of repression that restricts freedom of expression.
Recognize and protect vulnerable groups: Explicitly recognize and protect the rights and specific needs of vulnerable groups, including their intersectional realities, across all climate actions in Indonesia. This must be clearly stated in the SNDC’s “Just Transition” section and integrated into all mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Ensure meaningful public participation: Implement meaningful public participation across all processes and stages of climate action, including establishing accountable, accessible, and inclusive mechanisms for public engagement in drafting and implementing SNDC-derived policies.
Deliver just climate action: Ensure climate actions provide greater benefits to vulnerable groups, while placing a greater share of emission-reduction burdens on those who emit the most—especially those who profit from greenhouse gas emissions.
Commit to restoring rights and living spaces: Complement climate commitments with strategies to restore the rights and living spaces of vulnerable groups harmed by climate impacts, climate actions, and development projects, and ensure law enforcement against environmental destruction and human rights violations—including revising laws that grant impunity to perpetrators.
Adopt an integrated climate approach: Adopt integrated mitigation and adaptation approaches focused on landscape resilience to guarantee everyone’s right to safe and sustainable living spaces.
Additional Notes
Indonesia’s SNDC is currently being prepared, and the Government plans to submit it to the UNFCCC Secretariat in September 2024. Under the Paris Agreement, all Parties—including Indonesia—are required to contribute to greenhouse gas emission reductions to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of the century. This year marks the fourth time Indonesia has submitted an update to its national climate commitment since 2015.
While the SNDC is part of Indonesia’s global commitments, it also serves as a national policy framework that outlines strategies, actions, and measures for mitigation and adaptation needed to address climate change domestically. In the previous ENDC, Indonesia updated its emission reduction target to 31.89% through domestic efforts and 43.20% with international support from a business-as-usual (BAU) baseline by 2030. However, limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C requires more ambitious emission reductions. Lessons from past commitments and climate actions over the last decade show that, without a strong commitment to climate justice, climate action risks reinforcing inequality and injustice—root causes of the climate crisis itself.
A rapid civil society assessment conducted in April 2024 on the ENDC found: (1) limited recognition of vulnerable groups; (2) inadequate participation mechanisms; (3) no proportional target for distributing burdens and benefits of climate action; and (4) no restoration strategy addressing environmental destruction and rights violations linked to emissions.
Given the lack of meaningful engagement of vulnerable groups throughout the SNDC drafting process, since February 2024 the Civil Society Coalition for a Just SNDC has undertaken strategic efforts to collectively develop inputs that mainstream the rights of vulnerable groups—based on differing barriers, vulnerabilities, and needs—into every climate action and policy.
By August 2024, the coalition finalized a document titled Recommendations for a Just Second Nationally Determined Contribution (Second NDC) for Indonesia, integrating climate justice into Indonesia’s Second NDC. In line with these inputs, civil society urges the Government to:
Explicitly recognize diverse vulnerable groups and their intersectionality—as a manifestation of recognitional justice.
Ensure meaningful public participation from drafting through implementation—through transparency, access, open participation and oversight mechanisms that are accountable, accessible, and inclusive—especially for women and children, older persons and youth, persons with disabilities, smallholder farmers, workers and informal laborers, traditional fishers and women fishers, coastal communities, Indigenous Peoples, and the urban poor—reflecting procedural justice.
Guarantee proportional distribution of burdens and benefits so that vulnerable groups receive greater benefits, while heavier emission-reduction burdens fall on high emitters and those who profit from emissions—reflecting distributive justice.
Develop restoration strategies for rights and living spaces and ensure law enforcement against environmental and human rights violations, including revising laws that enable impunity—reflecting restorative/corrective justice.
Adopt a new paradigm beyond emissions reduction alone: a landscape resilience approach integrating ecosystem, social, and economic resilience, prioritizing integrated mitigation and adaptation to ensure safe, sustainable living spaces and improved well-being. This requires collaboration, participation, and equality to build a fairer and more sustainable future.
Operationally, civil society proposes applying climate justice dimensions and the landscape resilience approach across seven themes with specific priorities:
Just energy transition: Ensure a fair, affordable, and democratic transition by prioritizing community-managed renewables and restoring environments and rights harmed under fossil-based systems.
Green industry: Promote environmentally sound and socially just industries, create decent jobs, and protect workers’ rights.
Ecosystem protection: Stop deforestation, protect and restore ecosystems, recognize Indigenous and local community rights, and ensure sustainable management.
Food sovereignty: Build fair and sustainable local food systems, protect small food producers (farmers and fishers), and promote food sovereignty.
Rights to water and sanitation: Restore watersheds and water sources and ensure equitable, affordable access to clean water and safe, sustainable sanitation.
Inclusive and sustainable settlements and infrastructure: Develop climate-resilient and inclusive infrastructure that accounts for the needs of vulnerable groups.
Social protection and livelihoods: Strengthen climate-responsive social protection systems and create fair, sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Contacts
Torry Kuswardono (Yayasan Pikul) – torry@pikul.id – +62 811-383-270
Hendra Wiguna (KPPMPI) – hwiguna16@gmail.com – +62 856-0022-366
Ihsan Maulana (WGII) – ihsanmaulana1@gmail.com – +62 812-9290-9933
Andriyeni (Solidaritas Perempuan) – andriyeni@solidaritasperempuan.org – +62 812-6790-950
Fatum Ade (PJS) – fatumade24@gmail.com – +62 822-2664-730
Abdul Ghofar (WALHI) – ghofar@walhi.or.id – +62 856-4552-0982
Nadia Hadad (MADANI Berkelanjutan) – nadia@madaniberkelanjutan.id – +62 811-132-081
References
Intended/First NDC (2015), Updated NDC (2021), Enhanced NDC (2022), and Second Nationally Determined Contribution / SNDC (2024)
