F

ormer president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has received international recognition for his campaign on climate change, so it was fitting that he made an appearance during the climate talks at the COP21 in Paris.

On Monday, Yudhoyono descended on the COP21 conference venue in Le Bourget to launch a new global initiative on green-growth financing on behalf of the Seoul-based Global Green Growth Initiative Institute (GGGI), where he currently serves as council chairman.

Prior to the launch of the program at the South Korean pavilion at the COP21, Yudhoyono held a lunch, during which he received briefings about the negotiations at the climate talks.

Present during the lunch were negotiators representing Indonesia, including Rachmat Witoelar, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja and the head of the Indonesian pavilion at the COP21, Agus Justianto.

During his administration, Yudhoyono did a lot to make his mark in the campaign against climate change and his presence at the COP21 was a move to keep himself relevant in the arena.

Yudhoyono played an active role lobbying a number of world leaders to support Indonesia'€™s stance on climate change that he promoted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009.

Two years earlier in Bali, during the 2007 Bali Climate Conference, Yudhoyono was deemed by many to have played an instrumental role in bringing about a deal known as the Bali Road Map.

When he won his second term in office in 2009, Yudhoyono surprised the world again with his pledge to cut Indonesia'€™s emissions by 26 percent by 2020 using the state budget or by 41 percent with the help of international aid.

In 2013, Yudhoyono set up BP REDD+, the world'€™s first Cabinet-level institution working specifically on deforestation, forest degradation, conservation, the sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest-carbon stocks.

Shortly after handing over the power to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo in 2014, he took up the job as the chairman of the council, taking over from Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who is a former Danish prime minister and the leader of Denmark'€™s Liberal Party.

The GGGI partners with countries to help them build economies that grow strong and more efficient and sustainable in the use of natural resources, are less carbon intensive and more resilient to climate change.

'€œWe have learned the hard way as I did during a decade of my administration that we need the right kind of growth that is balanced, equitable, inclusive and sustainable,'€ Yudhoyono said during his speech at the launch of the new GGGI green initiative.

During the speech, Yudhoyono continued to make the same warning that he used to give in the past.

'€œThe biggest challenge faced by humanity today is global warming. There is no other alternative but to limit the rise in temperatures by 2 degree Celsius,'€ he said.

Many in the Indonesian negotiation team at the COP21 were people who worked with the former president in the past and they gave him a warm welcome.

'€œI want these climate talks to succeed because I want to end my 12-year work on a high note. This is the pledge that I made when I got the job from [then] president SBY,'€ Rachmat said.