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Jokowi’s COP26 speech falls flat among environmentalists
In his speeches at the the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo seems to have struck a chord with global climate action advocates, but failed to impress those in the know in Indonesia.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo gives a speech at the World Leaders Summit on Forest and Land Use, held in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 2. (President Secretariat/BPMI Setpres/Lukas)
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ith his keynote speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, this week, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo seems to have struck a chord with global climate-action advocates.
On the one hand, he flaunted Indonesia’s achievements in curbing deforestation as well as other work that the state had been ramping up ahead of the crucial summit. On the other hand, he made it clear that richer and more developed nations should foot the bill for urgent endeavors that countries with fewer resources can barely accomplish on their own.
For the country’s environmentalists, however, Jokowi merely launched into an anthem of platitudes that failed to touch on the role of the people most affected by climate change and, at its worst, could be accused of containing gross inaccuracies.
On Monday, the President claimed that Indonesia had achieved a number of concrete targets toward slowing the pace of climate change and pressed rich countries to fulfill their pledges on climate financing, so that less fortunate countries could achieve their climate pledges even sooner. He was the fourth to speak among 121 heads of government and state for the COP26 World Leaders Summit.
“Climate change is the biggest threat to global prosperity and development. Solidarity, partnership, cooperation and collaboration are the keys to facing climate change,” Jokowi said in a speech delivered in Indonesian on Monday.
Read also: ‘As ambitious as possible’: UK encourages Indonesia to go big at COP26
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