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Indonesia still undecided over 25-year gap in net zero deadlines
Rather than leading the "Race to Zero", Indonesia is still waffling at the starting line over its climate commitment, with the government yet to consolidate the deadlines among state institutions.
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Smokestacks release emissions into the atmosphere in this stock illustration. (Shutterstock/Tatiana Grozetskaya)
T
he successive announcements from top officials in recent months on Indonesia’s climate policy, which carry differing net-zero targets ranging between 2045 and 2070, have been called out by environmentalists as reflecting the government’s indecisiveness, especially in light of other countries announcing more aggressive climate commitments.
According to data published by the World Resources Institute (WRI), Indonesia was ranked the 8th worst emitter of greenhouse gases in December 2020, after Brazil.
The varying commitments started with the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s March 19 unveiling of a study concluding that the country would most likely achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
The projection was part of the government’s long-term strategy proposal that was submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of this year’s climate summit, set to be held in November in Glasgow, the United Kingdom.
The ministry’s then-director general of climate change management, Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, framed the 2070 goal as a “logical” compromise between protecting the environment and maintaining annual economic growth of between 5 percent and 7 percent.
Read also: Indonesia mulls net-zero emissions target by 2070
Ruandha said that an earlier deadline would require taking aggressive measures to halt deforestation and speeding up the phaseout of fossil fuel power plants, which would have knock-on effects on the agriculture, manufacturing and housing sectors.
