Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati speaks at a webinar on the country’s emissions reduction goals last week. INDONESIAN FINANCE MINISTRY
Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has called for international cooperation to help the country fund its emissions reduction commitments as global interest in tackling climate change gains momentum.
Indonesia is committed to slashing emissions by 29 per cent relative to a business-as-usual baseline of 2.87 gigatonnes of carbon emission equivalent (CO2e) by 2030. But with sufficient international support, it plans to reduce emissions by 41 per cent over the same period.
Sri Mulyani said the first scenario would require around $365 billion in investment and the second around $479 billion. In both cases, the government would pay only about 20 per cent of the bill.
“These are extraordinary numbers,” she said in a webinar hosted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last week. “This means that just like in education, healthcare and infrastructure, we need to consider how we can design policies and frameworks so that public-private, national and global partnerships can fill this financing gap and achieve our climate change commitments.”
The finance minister’s comment echoes the government’s stance that Indonesia needs foreign funding to meet its climate change mitigation goals, which now includes achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo remarked during a climate summit in April that developing countries would follow developed countries’ footsteps in committing to the more aggressive 2050 net-zero target “if developed nations support and are being credible with their commitments”.
Earlier this month, foreign minister Retno Marsudi called on her US counterpart Antony Blinken to financially support Indonesia’s climate goals, according to a foreign ministry statement published on August 4.
The statement said Retno had met Blinken in Washington on August 3, where she assured him that Indonesia was confident it could meet its nationally determined contributions (NDC) goals but added that the government hoped “the US and other developed countries could fulfil their commitments, including by providing a climate fund to support adaptation programmes.”
An overwhelming majority of Indonesia’s emissions come from the forestry, land and energy sectors. To improve emissions in the energy sector, for example, the country seeks to have renewable energy account for at least 31 per cent of the national energy mix by 2050.
Sri Mulyani said the government was considering a plan to impose a carbon tax and prepare a carbon market. The government also plans to impose a plastic duty that could bring in an estimated 1.6 trillion rupiah ($110 million) in revenue.
“This is a challenge not only for the government itself but for how policy can create a credible partnership platform,” said the finance minister.
THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
