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Government appeals Jakarta air pollution verdict
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Smog covers the Jakarta skyline on Aug. 9, 2019. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
T
he government has filed an appeal against a recent Central Jakarta District Court ruling that found President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and other top government officials guilty of negligence for failing to tackle Jakarta’s chronic air pollution.
Ilyas Asaad, an expert staffer for the Environment and Forestry Ministry, said the President, the environment ministry, the Home Ministry and the Health Ministry had filed the appeal with the Jakarta High Court on Sept. 29.
“An appeal is just an ordinary mechanism [to be used] if we have something that we object to [in a ruling],” Ilyas told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said the government’s decision to appeal the ruling was driven by the failure of the judges to take into account a new regulation pertaining to air quality, namely Government Regulation (PP) No. 22/2021.
The PP, a derivative regulation of the Job Creation Law, updates provisions in PP No. 41/1999 on air pollution control.
The new regulation, issued on Feb. 2, requires governors, mayors and regents to commission studies analyzing the causes of air pollution in the regions they lead, among other provisions. The data from the studies is to be handed over to the central government to allow it to formulate a nationwide air pollution control policy.
State Secretariat expert staffer Faldo Maldini noted on Wednesday that the government remained committed to improving air quality, regardless of the ruling and the results of the ensuing appeal.
