Indonesia will set a more ambitious national emissions reduction target ahead of the December 2015 UN climate conference in Paris as it shifts its focus from tackling deforestation to issues of energy consumption post 2020.

The President'€™s special envoy for climate change, Rachmat Witoelar, said on Monday that the government had finished drafting its commitment, known as the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Sept. 10.

After submitting the INDC, global emissions reduction targets can be set. Those targets will then form the basis for a new climate-change regime. The collective emissions reduction pledges aim to ensure that global warming does not exceed 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, thereby avoiding '€œdangerous'€ climate change.

'€œWe finished making the calculation three days ago. We will lock down [the number],'€ he said during a visit to The Jakarta Post'€™s office.

Rachmat declined to reveal the exact figure of how much of its emissions Indonesia is planning to reduce post 2020, saying that the draft needed to be submitted first to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo for his approval.

However, he ensured that the INDC would set a higher target than the government'€™s previous target of a 26 percent reduction by 2020.

'€œ[The target will be higher] by a few percentage points so that it will engender respect [among countries]. Other INDCs are vague. We are more clear,'€ said Rachmat.

Rachmat added that Indonesia planned set a more ambitious target because it was confident that it could meet its current target of reducing emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

'€œRight now we have achieved 13 percent [reduction in carbon emissions], but it could be more since the curve is leaning in our favor. Not to mention the development of technology that will speed up everything, so I'€™m sure we'€™ll meet the target,'€ Rachmat said.

The country'€™s national action plan on reducing greenhouse emissions (RAN-GRK) calculates that Indonesia'€™s total emissions would reach 2.95 gigatons of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) by 2020, in which 52 percent or 1,545 million tons of the CO2e would come from the forestry and peatland sectors.

'€œWe set the target of 26 percent under the assumption that we can stop forest fires as well as reduce the use of fossil fuels. We still have five years to go and deforestation has been declining although it still exists. Regarding changes in energy sources, we are developing geothermal energy,'€ Rachmat said.

According to the government, a total 1,545 million tons of CO2e in emissions from the forestry and peatland sectors was equivalent to the rate of deforestation and forest degradation of 1.13 million hectares per year.

Recent data from the World Resources Institute (WRI) showed that from 2011 to 2013, the country'€™s average tree-cover loss slowed to 1.6 million hectares per year. According to the data, the country'€™s primary forest loss also slowed in the 2011-2013 period to an average of less than a million hectares per year, the lowest in a decade.

Energy consumption in Indonesia is predicted to rise exponentially because of population growth and an overdependence on fossil fuels.

'€œWith our changing demographics, our energy consumption per capita will rise because we still rely on coal and fossil fuels for transportation, especially as the country becomes more urbanized,'€ University of Indonesia environmental expert Jatna Supriatna recently said.

According to the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), in 2010, energy consumption pumped 400 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. By 2020, Bappenas predicts it will double to 800 million tons. And by 2045, it will more than quadruple to 1.7 billion tons.

Carbon emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use practices as well as peat decomposition and peat fires reached 900 million tons in 2010. This contribution is predicted to decrease to 760 million tons in 2020.

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