RI secures financial backing from UK on climate change

Aditya Suharmoko ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 09/15/2009 12:10 PM  |  Headlines

The government launched the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund on Monday, with the UK government allocating 10 million pounds sterling to help Indonesia deal with climate change.

The trust fund, integrated with national development planning, is expected to support Indonesia in dealing with climate change, State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta said in a statement after the soft launch of the fund.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, representatives of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and officials of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) also attended the meeting.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which was selected by Bappenas as an interim trustee to manage the trust fund, will disburse funds for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The UNDP will manage the fund for the next one to two years before a national trustee is appointed.

Indonesia's development partners have welcomed the establishment of the trust fund, said Paskah.

"Some development partners have even pledged their commitment to allocate funds for climate change through the trust fund, like the UK government, the Australian government, the Norwegian government, the Swedish government, the Dutch government and other development partners," he said.

Indonesia will raise global awareness about the trust fund at the 15th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

Paskah said he expected the awareness-raising program would trigger more interest from non-governmental and philanthropic organizations to help Indonesia cope with climate change.

He added that the government was preparing the Climate Change Sectoral Roadmap that would prioritize development programs related to climate change.

The energy, forestry, transportation, waste management, agriculture, maritime and fisheries, water resources and health sectors will receive priority funds from the trust fund.

The roadmap, along with the government's medium-term development plan for 2010 to 2014, is expected to be completed this year, said Paskah.

A recent study - conducted by McKinsey consultants for the Climate Change National Council (DNPI) - showed that Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions were expected to jump to 3.6 gigatons by 2030, from 2.3 gigatons in 2005, with emissions increasing by 2 percent a year.

The report also stated Indonesia was currently the world's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxyde after the United States and China.

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Katie (not verified), U.S. — Wed, 09/23/2009 - 3:15am

Just to be clear, China (a developing nation), and not the U.S., is currently the number one emitter of CO2. It is not just developed nations that are causing the problem - though they have done most of the damage to-date, China and Indonesia rounding out the top three for C02 emissions highlights the fact that developing countries could greatly exacerbate the problem in the years ahead.

Deleuze Guattari (not verified), Jakarta — Tue, 09/15/2009 - 9:57pm

I hope funds can be dispersed directly to NGOs too, so that the country's poorer communities are better equipped to cope with climate change. For the rich, climate change is a problem, but not really an existential threat after all. It's the more vulnerable people, like those living out on the Pacific islands, small African states, Bangladesh etc who will face the music- and most of the noise is coming from developed countries..

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