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Environmentalists decry Indonesia’s unclear stance on key deforestation pledge
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United Kingdom Business Secretary and COP26 president Alok Sharma (right) walks with Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar in Jakarta on May 31. (Handout/Environment and Forestry Ministry)
E
nvironmental activists have expressed disappointment over Indonesian officials’ criticism of a global pledge to end deforestation by 2030 made at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Kingdom.
Indonesia was among the countries that endorsed a global agreement declared on Nov. 1 at the climate summit, pledging to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation” by 2030. As of Friday, the agreement was endorsed by more than 130 countries covering 90 percent of the world’s forests.
But Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar was quick to label the agreement as “inappropriate and unfair”, adding that Indonesia’s development agenda “should not be stopped for the sake of reducing carbon emissions or deforestation.”
She instead insisted that Indonesia remained committed to its goal where its forestry sector would absorb more carbon than it released, a system known as carbon sink, by 2030 by doubling down efforts in forest rehabilitation and mitigating deforestation.
Read also: Govt signals about-face on COP26 deforestation pledge
Siti’s statement, which was made during her speech to Indonesian students at the University of Glasgow, has drawn criticism from activists questioning Indonesia’s commitment to the landmark deal that the country had just endorsed.
“This begs a significant question: what is [the government’s] goal of committing to the agreement when it does not want to end deforestation?” Greenpeace Indonesia forestry campaigner Iqbal Damanik said.
