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Govt signals about-face on COP26 deforestation pledge
Environment and Forestry minister dismisses as "inappropriate and unfair" a global plan to end deforestation by 2030
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E
nvironment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has dismissed as "inappropriate and unfair" a global plan to end deforestation by 2030, days after Indonesia, home to a third of the world's rainforests, joined 127 other nations in making the deforestation pledge.
The agreement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) climate talks on Monday was at odds with Indonesia's development plans, and the global goals should be fine-tuned, said Siti, who attended the summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
"Forcing Indonesia to [reach] zero deforestation in 2030 is clearly inappropriate and unfair," she said on Twitter on Wednesday.
"The massive development of [President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s] era must not stop in the name of carbon emissions or in the name of deforestation.”
Her comments, made so soon after the pledge, underline the challenges ahead over global deforestation goals, with just three countries — Indonesia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo — collectively accounting for 85 percent of the world's forests.
Adding to the confusion over Indonesia's position, the country's deputy foreign minister, Mahendra Siregar, denied on Thursday that zero deforestation by 2030 was even part of the COP26 pledge.
"The declaration issued does not refer at all to the ‘end deforestation by 2030'," he said in a statement.
"It is important to move beyond mere narrative, rhetoric, arbitrary targets and sound bites.”
He further explained that the pledge did not mean to halt deforestation completely but to ensure there was no net loss of forested land.
A spokesman for the environment ministry did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on Thursday and the State Palace could not be reached.
Mahendra later told Reuters that Indonesia interpreted "halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030", as stated in the pledge, as "sustainable forest management [...], not end deforestation by 2030".
‘Profoundly disappointing’
Siti said definitions of deforestation differed widely, so imposing European standards on Indonesia was unfair.
Instead, she highlighted Indonesia's own, less absolute goals, where the forestry sector would absorb more greenhouse gases than it releases by 2030 by minimizing deforestation and rehabilitating forests.
But the almost immediate about-face by a country central to saving the world's tropical rainforests triggered outrage on social media in Indonesia and among environmentalists.
"The statement is profoundly disappointing," said Kiki Taufik, head of Greenpeace's Indonesian forests campaign, calling it "completely at odds with the declaration".
"Friends to the environment or money? Ma'am," Instagram user Bayu Satrio Nugroho remarked under Siti's post.
Although Indonesia has plans to retire its coal-fired power plants and reach net-zero emissions before 2060, leaving forests untouched will be a challenge.
Indonesia is the world's biggest exporter of palm oil, and in 2019 alone, an area of forest and other lands half the size of Belgium was burned for plantations.
However, authorities have suspended the issuance of permits for new plantations since 2018 and cut deforestation by 75 percent last year.
Indonesia is also seeking to expand its nickel and electric vehicle (EV) industries, requiring more land.
Fitch Solutions, in a research note on the COP26 pledge, said it could pose a risk to Indonesia's EV supply chain development and establishment of new nickel mines due to pressure to stem deforestation.
