Analyses by Indonesian and German research bodies suggest that Indonesia has enough policies on the conservation of environment and climate that are in line with economic development, but lags behind in their implementation and enforcement.
he European Green Deal may help commodity-exporting countries such as Indonesia to reap economic benefits from increased trade with European nations, but doing so may potentially move environmentally harmful practices from Europe to countries with less stringent environmental policies, researchers have warned.
In an effort to make the region the world’s first to reach zero-emission in the coming decades, the European Parliament has passed a set of regulations in the past few years that, among other purposes, mandates the adoption of environmentally friendly practices across various sectors
But some sectors, such as agriculture, have started feeling the brunt of the policies, stoking fears that farmers, industries and manufacturers across Europe might soon fail to keep their production in line with demand.
Experts said that resource-rich countries like Indonesia were well-positioned to pick up the slack and jump at the opportunity by expanding their agricultural land in order to export more of their commodities to Europe.
“Indonesia is projected to see an increase of 1 million hectares of land used for crop production thanks to the EU’s Green Deal Policy,” said Matthias Dieter of German research organization the Thünen Institute in Jakarta recently.
Read also: Strong policies urged to achieve climate ambitions
The country had 25 million ha of land used for crop production last year, according to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS). Preliminary data from a study conducted by Thünen suggest that Indonesia would be among 10 countries to see a significant increase in its crop production as the result of the Green Deal.
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