P

aris is back in the spotlight. This Monday, over 140 heads of states will descend on the city of lights as the much-anticipated UN climate change conference, now in its 21st year, gets underway.

A key difference at this year'€™s summit is that heads of states have been invited to attend on the first day for a leaders event '€” instead of a high-level session in the last days of the two-week summit as at previous conferences '€” in the hope that they will inject political momentum to the conference at the very start. The move may also energize their climate negotiators, who have been shaping the treaty'€™s draft for years, to work on details and seal the deal at the end of the conference.

The aggressive move made by the host country gives hope that Paris will avoid repeating the catastrophic failure of the Copenhagen conference back in 2009, the last time that governments tried to produce a legal treaty to curb harmful greenhouse gases blamed for triggering climate change.

The Paris conference is the last chance for countries to ink a global climate agreement on how to deal with greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020. It is expected to speed up transition to renewable energy while protecting vulnerable communities from the harmful impacts of the warming climate.

With his presence in Paris, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo can accomplish two things at the same time. First, as the leader of the world'€™s largest Muslim-majority nation, his presence is key in delivering a strong message of solidarity to the French people, who are still grieving following the bloody terror acts launched in the name of Islam over two weeks ago.

And second, as Indonesia is one of the world'€™s biggest carbon emitters, he should be ready to face the music and clear the air '€” and not get defensive or come up with pointless excuses. He should be ready to get criticized for our massive contribution to carbon emissions, the main greenhouse gas blamed for driving climate change, from months of forest fires. But most important of all, he should offer solid and transparent solutions for ending deforestation and peatland clearing to prevent the deadly haze disaster from wreaking more havoc in the coming years.

The move is crucial, since Indonesia '€” which is taking its biggest delegation ever to the climate talks, with 415 delegates, including 61 negotiators '€” needs to gain other countries'€™ support going into negotiations.

After all, in Paris, Indonesia aims to secure support for its post-2020 climate agenda as outlined in the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), especially the goal of reaching 29 percent emissions reduction by 2030 and 41 percent with international support.

In the coming days, let'€™s watch over Paris to make sure it does not repeat Copenhagen'€™s mistake. Hopefully it is the place where the world unites to fight climate change, the biggest threat to mankind, with a landmark treaty to safeguard our future.