Most of us who have been paying some attention to the climate change issue are likely to agree the important role of Unfccc meeting in Copenhagen in just a few weeks time. The scale and urgency of the climate challenge requires countries to work together according to common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Indonesia has stepped up to the challenge and is playing its part in the global climate regime discussion. The so-called “Bali Road Map” coined during the Unfccc meeting in Bali in 2007 has become one of the most important guiding documents in the climate negotiations. Moreover, Indonesia has announced that it is set to reduce 26 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and can even achieve further reduction of 41 percent provided technology and fund transfer from developed countries are in place.
This neatly demonstrates that all countries need to take some forms of action while securing an effective support mechanism for developing countries.
There is, however, no silver bullet that will solve all problems; instead we need a set of comprehensive and balanced policy measures and technologies. We need them all. Several measures that are of particular relevance for Indonesia are energy efficiency, renewables, CO2 Capture and Storage, and forest management.
The first is energy efficiency and conservation — for both producers and consumers. Energy efficiency is considered a low-hanging fruit and its implementation will actually save cost in the medium to long term.
Increasing efficiency of power plants and mass use of energy-efficient light-bulbs are two practical examples. International Energy Agency estimates that about 55 percent of global end-user energy is lost due to inefficiency in all sectors: electricity, residential, commercial, industry and transport.
This must and can be improved. Not only it will reduce CO2 emissions but also allow more energy to be distributed to those that are still deprived of electricity.
Second is renewable energy. Indonesia is fortunate enough to have relatively abundant sources of renewable energy within its borders such as geothermal, solar, hydro, wind, and biomass.
These are indigenous low-carbon sources of energy. Shell’s scenario experts believe that renewable sources could provide around 30 percent of the world’s energy by the middle of this century, from around 3 percent today.
That would be impressive growth — much faster than previous new energy sources have grown, but it also means that it will take forty years to get there, and that fossil fuels and nuclear will supply the remaining 70 percent even then. The role of renewables in Indonesia’s energy mix is also set to increase from around 5 percent in 2003 to a bit over 10 percent in 2025 under an optimalization scenario. Again, though impressive this means fossil fuels will still dominate for the coming decades to meet the growing energy demand and fuel development.
Managing and significantly reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel plants can realistically be achieved only through CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) – an application of a suite of technology that captures CO2 from combustion of fossil fuels, transport it and store it safely underground instead of emitting it to the atmosphere. According to The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), CCS could potentially deliver around half of the total emissions reduction needed to stabilize global CO2 levels by the end of the century.
There are already some small-scale CCS projects such as CO2 SINK in Germany, Mongstad in Norway, Westcarb in the US, Weyburn and Quest in Canada, and the Otway Basin project in Australia. But with a total CO2 storage rate of around 3 million tonnes per year globally, there’s still a huge gap between where we are today and realizing the full potential of CCS.
But to capture this opportunity, the global society have to be ambitious. For CCS to fulfill its abatement-potential, it should be installed at 90 percent of all the coal and gas-fired power plants in OECD countries by 2050, and at half of those in non-OECD countries.
Understanding the options, developing the required policy framework and mustering support for developing countries are therefore pivotal. The recently launched “Indonesia CCS Study” by CCS Working Group is an important milestone in this effort.
At the same time as the world is reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, there is a need to safeguard and increase the carbon stock contained in our soil and forests. Indonesia as one of the leading forest nations is spearheading the discussions around Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). In essence this scheme will financially compensate avoided deforestation along with afforestation and reforestation, hence providing incentive to keep forests in tact and even increase the forest cover to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.
Energy efficiency, renewables, CCS, and forest management are not options in which we as a society can afford to choose just one or a few– we need them all.
All four of them are of particular importance for Indonesia, and it can only be done with proper international support.
Unfccc meeting in Copenhagen need to deliver a framework in which such support can be effectively channeled to developing countries such as Indonesia.
The urgency and scale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions simply leave us no option other than to take these actions, and take them now.
The writer is Country Chairman and President Director PT. Shell Indonesia
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