The Sustainable Madani Foundation summarizes several important events related to the economic-political conditions that occurred in the past week (August 10, 2021 – August 16, 2021). Here are the excerpts:

1. Climate Change Budget Declines

The portion of the climate change budget in the State Budget (APBN) has decreased over the past three years. In 2018, the ministry/institutional budget for climate change reached IDR 132.4 trillion. This budget then decreased to IDR 97.66 trillion in 2019 and IDR 77.81 trillion in 2020. The average climate change budget allocation in the 2018-2020 APBN was IDR 102.65 trillion per year. Meanwhile, the average budget for mitigation was IDR 62.7 trillion per year and IDR 40.4 trillion per year for adaptation efforts.

On the other hand, funding for the coastal and marine sector has only received an allocation of 0.2 percent of the state budget. These activities are centralized within the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). Indirect activities such as research and development still dominate.

The BKF also stated that 88 percent of the climate change budget is used to finance green infrastructure. The other 12 percent is used to finance supporting activities, such as regulations and policies, research and development, capacity building, and community empowerment.

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, commitments need to be strengthened in the future work plans of ministries and state institutions. Dian Lestari, Head of the Center for Climate Change and Multilateral Financing Policy, Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF), Ministry of Finance, stated that efforts to mitigate climate change require significant funding. In fact, the financing requirement for climate change mitigation by sector until 2030 reaches IDR 3,461 trillion.

2. July 2021 Was the Hottest Month in 142 Years

. Climate change and global warming are not improving. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States stated that July 2021 was the world's hottest month on record.

According to his records, July is typically the hottest time of the year on Earth. Last month, the global surface temperature was 0.93 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th-century average of 15.8 degrees Celsius. This was the highest July record in 142 years.

Global land surface warming was driven by warming of the Northern Hemisphere's land masses. In this part of the world, the highest July temperature reached 1.54 degrees Celsius above average, surpassing the record set in 2012. During that month, the NCEI said temperatures were warmer than average in North America, Europe, northern and southern South America, northern Africa, the southern half of Asia, Oceania, and parts of the western and northern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

Regionally, the NCEI noted that Asia had the hottest month on record in July 2021, beating the previous record set in 2010. Europe recorded the second-hottest month on record that same month. Meanwhile, North America, South America, Africa, and Oceania all made the top 10 on record. The extreme heat detailed in NOAA's monthly report also reflects the long-term climate change outlined in this week's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

3. Riddled with Problems, Palm Oil Plantation Licensing in Papua and West Papua is Being Evaluated

Deemed fraught with problems, oil palm plantation permits in Papua and West Papua are being evaluated. This is considering that oil palm plantations remain an industry that contributes positively to the national economy. Freddy Kolintama, Head of the West Papua Province National Land Agency (BPN) Regional Office, stated that the evaluation of oil palm permits requires cross-sector coordination involving ministries and institutions, as well as the West Papua Provincial Government.

The implementation of the evaluation of oil palm plantation permits is based on Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 8 of 2018 concerning the Postponement and Evaluation of Oil Palm Plantation Permits and the Improvement of Oil Palm Plantations.

The evaluation revealed a number of violations, as revealed by Yacob S. Fonataba, Head of the West Papua Province Food Crops, Horticulture, and Plantation Service. These violations included not having a Land Use Right (HGU), not having a timber utilization permit from the Forestry Service, not reporting company share ownership and management structure, and not completing the core plantation.

For your information, currently there are 24 palm oil companies operating in West Papua Province with a total evaluated concession area of ​​681,974 hectares.

A similar approach is being implemented in Papua Province. The Papua Province National Land Agency (BPN) Regional Office (Kanwil BPN) continues to monitor the HGU evaluation action plan across the entire Papua region, from Jayapura to Merauke, through local land offices. Based on the BPN Papua Province Regional Office's inventory, there are 328,895 hectares of agricultural and plantation HGU land. Of this, 159,000 hectares were oil palm plantations in 2020, located across several regencies and cities.

Deputy Minister of ATR/BPN Surya Tjandra added that what is currently being done in the provinces of Papua and West Papua can serve as an example and role model to be implemented in other provinces.

4. Survey: Satisfaction with Government Declines, Especially in Papua

A Charta Politika survey showed that public satisfaction with the government dropped from 65.3 percent in March 2021 to 62.4 percent.
The survey was conducted face-to-face using a multistage random sampling method from July 12-20, 2021, to 1,200 respondents from across Indonesia. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.83 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.

In this survey, Charta Politika found that 62.4 percent of the public were satisfied and 34.1 percent dissatisfied with the government's performance. According to the Charta Politika survey, the highest levels of satisfaction with government performance were in Central Java and Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Meanwhile, the lowest satisfaction levels were in the Maluku and Papua regions (45 percent satisfied, 40 percent dissatisfied, 15 percent did not answer), Kalimantan (47.7 percent satisfied, 49.2 percent dissatisfied, 3.1 percent did not answer), and Sumatra (55.2 percent satisfied, 43.2 percent dissatisfied, 1.6 percent did not answer).