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Gusti to focus on climate change, fires and river basins
New State Minister for the Environment Gusti Muhammad Hatta has pledged to take tough action to save the country's natural environment by focusing on climate change, forest fires and critical river basins in his first 100-day program
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ew State Minister for the Environment Gusti Muhammad Hatta has pledged to take tough action to save the country's natural environment by focusing on climate change, forest fires and critical river basins in his first 100-day program.
Gusti, who has rarely been heard at the national forum on environment, was a professor and vice rector at the Lambung Mangkurat University in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, and is determined to strengthen Indonesia's position at climate change talks at international forums by establishing an emissions target by the Copenhagen climate change summit to be held in December.
"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked me to present Indonesia as a pioneer at the climate change conference," he said in an interview hours before his inauguration at the Presidential Palace on Thursday.
Gusti, who was still surprised by his appointment to the environmental post, replaced Rachmat Witoelar, who was formerly the president of the Conference of Parties (COP) on climate change in Bali in 2007.
Rachmat is now chairman of the National Commission on Climate Change (DNPI), the country's focus panel set up by Yudhoyono in 2008, which has been tasked with, among other things, coordinating policies related to climate issues and appointing Indonesia's international climate negotiators.
Rachmat was appointed as the DNPI's executive chairman when he was state minister for the environment.
At the Copenhagen summit, each country will be represented by a ministerial-level delegate.
When asked whether he would lead the Indonesian delegation to the summit, Gusti said "It will *be led* by Rachmat.
"But we must start preparing our position for better promotion of our goals in Copenhagen now," he said.
It was also not yet clear whether the jurisdiction of climate change would return to the Office of the State Minister for the Environment.
Indonesia is the first developing country to have expressed commitment to cutting emissions by 26 percent by 2020 with its own budget.
The pledge was made amid tough negotiations as developed nations, with the exception of Norway and Japan, remained reluctant to announce binding targets on emission cuts after the Kyoto Protocol ended in 2012.
Gusti said he would also further promote a carbon trading system to encourage more companies and local administrations to run clean development mechanism (CDM) projects.
Indonesia currently has about 100 CDM projects, but so far only three companies have received funding from selling carbon, far behind China, India and other Asian countries.
Under Rachmat's administration, the management of CDM had also been transferred to the DNPI.
In terms of forest fires, Gusti, who was formerly a consultant to the Center of International Forest Research (CIFOR), said that he would seek a workable solution to prevent forest fires in the coming years.
"I know it will be hard. Many forest fires are on the island *of Borneo* I come from, but I will formulate effective mechanisms to stop the fires," he said.
The government has long been under pressure from neighboring countries to stop the forest fires, which can affect air quality as far away as Australia.
Gusti said that forest fires such those as in Kalimantan had affected people's health and been a blow to local business.
"I will coordinate with the Forestry Ministry to make the program successful," said Gusti, who admitted to having received calls from mining companies offering assistance in his new position.
Indonesia experienced massive forest fires in 1999 and 2006 making the country the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States and China.
The expected return of El Ni*o's dry conditions this year could see more devastating forest fires.
Regarding river basin issues, Gusti said he would focus on the rivers that are already in a critical condition.
Data from the Forestry Ministry shows a total of 282 out of 458 river basins are considered critical.
Poor coordination among ministries and uncontrolled land use has contributed to the degradation of river basins and subsequent runoff of toxic materials into rivers.
The Forestry Ministry is responsible for monitoring the quality of forests in river basin areas; the Public Works Ministry is tasked with ensuring water supply from rivers; and the state ministry for the environment has been tasked to survey the quality of water running into rivers.
