Jakarta, April 9, 2021 - The Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), Madani Berkelanjutan, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability Indonesia (ICLEI Indonesia), WALHI, and Thamrin School urged the government to be more ambitious in fulfilling the mandate of the Paris Agreement in an online discussion with the theme "Indonesia Can Achieve Carbon Neutrality Before 2070".
Indonesia's weak ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 is reflected in the Long-Term Strategy on Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050 ( LTS-LCCR 2050) document prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK). The LTS-LCCR 2050 document states that to keep the earth's temperature from rising beyond 1.5℃, the government targets carbon neutrality by 2070. This means Indonesia is 20 years behind the target set in the Paris Agreement.
Yuyun Harmono, Climate Justice Campaign Manager, WALHI, emphasized that this delay will be detrimental to many developing countries, especially if carbon trading and carbon capture are chosen as one of the ways to achieve “ net zero ”.
" Furthermore, there are many loopholes to circumvent ambitious emission reductions, such as trading carbon offsets to developing countries, rather than structurally transforming business models. If this is chosen, developing countries will face a double burden: offsets from developed countries and emissions reduction targets within their own countries ," Yuyun explained.
Furthermore, LTS-LCCR 2050 explains that of the 5 emission-contributing sectors that are the focus of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NCD), only the forestry and other land (FOLU) sector will reach net sink in 2030. The energy sector itself will only experience its highest emission peak ( peaking ) in 2030.
The Indonesian Government Needs to Set More Ambitious Targets in the Energy and Forestry Sectors
The IESR analysis results show that Indonesia is capable of achieving carbon neutrality before 2050, including by reducing GHG emissions in the power generation, transportation and industrial sectors which contributed a total of 406.8 million tons of CO2e or around 93% of the total GHG emissions in the energy sector in 2015.
" Indonesia is able to increase the primary energy mix from renewable energy to 69% by 2050 by increasing renewable energy generation capacity to a minimum of 24 GW by 2025, building 408-450 GW of renewable energy generation by 2050, and stopping the construction of new coal-fired power plants since 2025 and retiring combined-cycle power plants early ," said Deon Arinaldo, Energy Transformation Program Manager, IESR.
Deon also explained that various global modeling to achieve the Paris Agreement targets shows that more ambitious efforts will be able to make at least the coal mix in power plants around 5-10% by 2030. Other results state that at least the clean fuel mix in transportation reaches 20-25% by 2030 of the total energy demand of the transportation sector. However, the LTS-LCCR 2050 document targets that with an ambitious scenario based on the Paris Agreement (LCCP), the primary energy mix will be filled by 34% coal, 25% gas, 8% oil, and only 33% renewable energy in 2050. When compared to the current NDC target, the increase in the renewable energy target is only 10% in 25 years.
Meanwhile, in the same document, in the forestry sector, the most ambitious scenario (LCCP) targets a natural forest deforestation rate of 241,000 hectares per year from 2010 to 2030 and 99,000 hectares per year from 2031 to 2050. This means that Indonesia still allows the conversion of around 7 million hectares of natural forest, or more than 12 times the size of Bali Island, in the 2010-2050 period. Because Indonesia has lost around 4.9 million hectares of natural forest in 2010-2020, Indonesia's natural forest deforestation quota for the next 30 years is only around 2 million hectares or 71,000 hectares per year.
The Indonesian government has succeeded in reducing the rate of natural forest deforestation for 4 consecutive years, but this is not enough.
" For Indonesia to achieve carbon neutrality before 2070, Indonesia must adopt the most ambitious scenario and target a lower deforestation quota in the Updated NDC, even to zero because the remaining deforestation quota until 2030 can be said to have been used up in the last decade ," said Anggalia Putri, Knowledge Management Manager of the Madani Berkelanjutan Foundation.
Strengthening the policy of halting new permits to cover remaining natural forests will help Indonesia curb its deforestation.
" Madani's initial calculations indicate that there are approximately 9.4 million hectares of natural forest outside concessions, social forestry allocation areas (PIAPS), and the Indicative Map for the Halt to New Permits (PIPPIB) that must be immediately protected from new permits to prevent deforestation, " added Anggalia Putri. Furthermore, protecting natural forests already within permits and concessions will also help ensure the achievement of Indonesia's climate commitments in the forestry sector.
Protecting peat ecosystems comprehensively, encouraging the realization of existing peat restoration targets, and expanding peat restoration implementation to areas burned in the 2019 fires can also help the forestry and land sector become a net sink by 2030. Nearly half a million hectares (498,500 ha) of peat ecosystems burned in 2019 were not included in the 2016-2020 peat restoration targets. Therefore, all peat ecosystems burned in 2019, both inside and outside concessions, must be included in the 2021-2024 peat restoration targets to prevent fires in these areas from recurring.
Regional Governments Have a Great Opportunity to Implement Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
More serious efforts in climate change mitigation and adaptation must be reflected in the LTC-LCCR 2050, so that, especially at the regional level, more local governments are strongly committed to implementing regional development that takes into account social, economic and environmental aspects and leads to inclusive and sustainable development.
ICLEI Indonesia believes that the Indonesian Government, with the support of 34 provincial governments and 514 city/district governments, is capable of achieving carbon neutrality before 2070 by strengthening multi-level governance, particularly the involvement of national and regional legislative assemblies, as well as business actors or the private sector, to set optimistic and more ambitious targets.
" Several local governments that ICLEI Indonesia assists have committed their heads to combating climate change, both through adaptation and mitigation. They believe that climate change issues and agendas are inevitable and must be responded to positively ," said Ari Mochamad, Country Manager of ICLEI Indonesia.
According to a report from UN-Habitat, 70% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions originate from urban activities (local governments). This data makes local governments a global hotspot for climate change. Nevertheless, local governments have a significant opportunity to become leaders in limiting the negative impacts of climate change. The Indonesian government needs to seize this opportunity by positioning local governments as the "Heart of the National Strategy" to support the national commitments outlined in the National Development Planning (NDC) and move towards a carbon-neutral future.
At the implementation level, the national government needs to provide attention and support to local governments by preparing enabling environments and facilitating bureaucratic reforms to access climate finance. ICLEI Indonesia recommends developing supporting tools that are systematic, structured, regularly updated, and easily understood by readers and/or users (primarily local government staff) from various educational backgrounds.
This support will address several challenges faced by local governments, such as: first , the limited human resource capacity to calculate GHG emission reductions and/or monitor adaptation and vulnerability levels, and the generally ad-hoc nature of institutions addressing climate change . Second , the limited availability of guidance for translating transformative strategies, plans, programs, and activities, as well as selecting appropriate green technologies. Third , the lack of uniform indicators for tracking budgets for ongoing programs and activities, and the bureaucratic constraints in accessing funding (grants or loans) from third parties.
Media Contact:
Lisa Wijayani, Green Economy Program Manager, IESR, lisa@iesr.or.id, 08118201828
Anggalia Putri, Knowledge Management Manager, Madani Berkelanjutan Foundation, anggi@arsip.madaniberkelanjutan.id, 08562118997
Ari Mochamad, Country Manager, ICLEI Indonesia, ari.mochamad@iclei.org
Yuyun Harmono, Climate Justice Campaign Manager, WALHI, harmono@gmail.com
