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Indonesia struggles to meet COP26 targets: A lost opportunity?
Indonesia is struggling to meet its NDC targets, as the country will need an estimated US$81 billion in investment to make it happen.
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Protesters take part in a demonstration against climate change in Brussels on Oct. 10, ahead of the COP26 climate summit. (AFP/Nicolas Maeterlinck)
The United Kingdom will host the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, for two weeks beginning on Oct. 31. The summit will bring countries from all over the world together to accelerate action toward the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is set to attend the COP26 in person to show Indonesia’s commitment to the global fight against climate change. He will head to Glasgow after participating in the Group of 20 summit in Rome.
Based on the historic deal, these countries are obliged to keep the rise of global at below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit heating to 1.5 degrees. These goals are legally binding, and the aim, therefore, is to reduce the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in most cases.
Reality bites, however, as the latest climate science continues to show the world is entering a dangerous phase. The latest findings from the internationally accepted Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are clear. Every inhabited region across the globe is already affected by climate change and some are and/or will be subject to a range of other issues, such as forced migration, loss of agricultural land and deadly floods, heatwaves and storms.
Indeed, our own capital city of Jakarta is predicted to sink by 2050 because of rising sea levels caused by climate change.
Each country has to develop updated national carbon emission cuts and climate targets for COP26, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Based on current projections of these NDCs, the world is moving toward a catastrophe if global temperatures increase by 3 degrees.
Indonesia is struggling to meet its NDC targets, as the country will need an estimated US$81 billion in investment to make it happen. Meanwhile, developed nations’ promise to support clean energy by allocating $100 billion a year has not been met, either. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that only about $80 billion was raised last year.
