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‘Missed opportunity’: Indonesia shies away from net-zero target at climate summit
While reiterating Indonesia's commitment to tackling climate change, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo failed to announce a net-zero emissions target for his own country during the recent climate summit.
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World leaders appear on the screen during a virtual Climate Summit, as seen from the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday. (Reuters/Tom Brenner)
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ndonesia has failed to make a stronger commitment to mitigate the climate crisis as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo opts to shy away from declaring a net-zero emission pledge at a recent climate summit, when most leaders announced a tougher promise to address the matter.
The President attended the virtual climate summit hosted by United States President Joe Biden on Thursday, when 40 world leaders were expected to raise their ambitions in mitigating the crisis.
Jokowi opened his five-minute speech by reiterating Indonesia’s commitment to mitigating the crisis: “Indonesia is serious in tackling climate change and calls upon the world to take concrete actions.”
However, the President did not specify any net-zero emissions goal, or when Indonesia would reach a point of balancing out the greenhouse gases it emits to the atmosphere.
He only claimed that Indonesia had led the fight against anthropogenic climate change by example through, among other efforts, the moratorium on natural forest and peatland conversion that covered 66 million hectares – an area larger than the United Kingdom and Norway combined.
Under the moratorium, the government cannot issue new concession permits in primary forests and peatland. It was first introduced in 2011 and extended every two years, until President Jokowi issued a 2019 presidential instruction to make the policy permanent.
The moratorium was introduced in 2011 and extended every two years. In August 2019, President Jokowi issued a presidential instruction to make the policy permanent.
