The Copenhagen climate change conference might be over, but differences continue to arise between environmentalists and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono regarding Indonesia’s commitments.

A coalition of NGOs, led by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said Tuesday that Yudhoyono and his delegates had lied to the public in their statements during the talks and therefore the House of Representatives had to summon the President as soon as possible to demand a clarification.

“During the talks Indonesia said that it was seriously committed to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, however, the President lied about his seriousness,” Walhi forest campaigner Teguh Surya said after meeting with House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung to file their complaints.

“First, the government did not raise its commitment to protect its natural forest during the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry [Lulucf] discussion.

“Only Africa, Nepal and New Zealand stated their commitment in the Lulufc discussion. This, of course, shows a betrayal of Indonesia’s commitment,” he added.

“The government has reserved 17.91 million hectares of natural for development outside of the forestry sector. We must also highlight the planned expansion of palm oil plantations by 26.7 million hectares in 17 provinces, which will convert existing natural forests.

“How can all of this happen if the President is serious about reducing emissions?” he said.

Presidential spokesman Dino Pati Djalal, however, told The Jakarta Post the Walhi was exaggerating and that their remarks about Yudhoyono’s lack of seriousness showed their lack of knowledge about what really happened during the Copenhagen talks.

“Their attitude is unhelpful to the common efforts to promote cooperation on climate change,” he said.

Dino said that Indonesia’s seriousness was evident in the fact the country was the first among developing countries to announce it would reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent.

“Before Indonesia, the other developing countries were still shying away from stating their carbon emission reduction targets,” he said.

“We are going to try our best to achieve the target. The Walhi should be trying to work together with us rather than propagating disinformation,” he added.

Dino also said that Yudhoyono’s personal commitment to preserving the nation’s natural forest was clear by his decision to launch the “One Man, One Tree” program.

However, Teguh said the program was nothing but camouflage used by the government to outsmart the public and the global audience about what really happened.

“The facts show the amount of rehabilitated forest is much smaller than that of legalized deforestation projects,” he said.

“The Walhi even found out the success rate of plantation projects in the National Forest and Land Rehabilitation Movement [Gerhan] is only between 0 and 60 percent, and it has cost the country more than Rp 18 trillion,” he added.

Chairman of the Anti Debt Coalition (KAU), Dani Setiawan, said that Indonesia only exploited climate change issues to get more funding.

“During the talks, developed countries, such as the United States  committed to giving Indonesia US$10 billion from 2010 to 2012. However, 50 percent of those funds will be considered as foreign debt, which is actually a setback,” he said.

Dani said that Indonesia should have used better diplomatic bargaining skills,  such as those employed by Bolivia.

“Bolivia used the historical aspects of its diplomatic bargaining with developed countries by securing non-foreign debt schemes,” he said.

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