Low Carbon News in Indonesia in August 2013
Interactive web app lets users map forest carbon emissions activities
1 August 2013
A new online portal for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) carbon emissions allows researchers and practitioners to better manage forest inventories. The relaunched app aims to provide improved guidance for greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories – including default emission factor values on wetlands, which can be used to compare the environmental impact of different fuels or activities.
Users can manage sample plots and research forest carbon stocks, including above-ground and below-ground tree biomass, dead woody debris, soil and undergrowth. Registering their activities will improve visibility. “I foresee this forest carbon portal as a place for them to park the data for further analysis in line with data management policy,” said Daniel Murdiyarso, a principal scientist at CIFOR, adding that meta data provides information on land cover, forest type, soil and climate.
Ministry of Environment (MoE) and Bank Indonesia (BI) push Banking sector support the Green Economy
21 Augustus 2013
Ministry of Environment (MoE) in cooperation with Bank Indonesia ( BI ) held a Media Briefing on the Role of Banks in Economic Development Implementing Green.
The basic principle of green banking is an attempt to strengthen the bank’s risk management capabilities specifically related to the environment and to encourage banks to increase financing portfolio of eco-friendly living such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, organic farming, eco-tourism, eco-friendly transportation, and a variety of eco-labels products. This is a form of consciousness bank against the risk of possible environmental problems on a project that may have a negative impact financed with cuts in credit quality and the reputation of the bank concerned. Within the framework of a more macro and long-term, Bank Indonesia expects green banking will make a positive contribution to the efforts to strengthen the fiscal and monetary policy as reflected in the burden of oil imports and a decline in agricultural products due to an increase in domestic energy supply from renewable energy sources, increasing the efficiency of energy use by industry, and an increase in organic agricultural products are backed by national banks. On the other hand, this move into banking contribution in supporting the government’s commitment to improve the position of Indonesia as the world’s lungs by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In pushing the policy, the Ministry of Environment together with Bank Indonesia coordination and cooperation are very intense. Coordination and cooperation are realized in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding that has been extended by two (2) times. The scope of this MOU include:
- Synchronization and harmonization of the laws and regulations required in accordance with the duties and authority of each institution, to support efforts to increase the bank’s role in environmental protection and management.
- Provision of information regarding regulations, policies, guidelines, criteria, standards and evaluation value, the company’s environmental performance is required in order to implement education, research and outreach to banks to formulate the necessary guidelines and regulations.
- Arrangements for the education and socialization regarding the protection and management of the environment to banking.
- Implementation of joint research in the framework of the preparation of guidelines and regulations for banks that take into account the concept of environmentally friendly living.
Source: http://www.menlh.go.id/klh-dan-bi-mendorong-sektor-perbankan-dukung-ekonomi-hijau/ (in bahasa)
Policy Tracking Workshop
22 August 2013
Within the last five years, the government of Indonesian has made significant progress on climate change policy development in three overarching areas: action, governance and supporting market and non-market mechanisms.
- On action, the National Action Plan on Emissions Reduction (RAN-GRK), Presidential Regulation 61/2011 has been introduced, which includes a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 26% with domestic resources, and by up to 41% with international support, by 2020, from a business-as-usual scenario. This is a broad plan that covers 70 programs, across various sectors, and includes provisions for sub-national policies through the Provincial Action Plan on Emissions Reduction (RAD-GRK).
- On governance, the stipulation of Presidential Regulation 71/2011 on National GHG Inventory Systems (SIGN) further calls for the establishment of Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (MER) frameworks to track and evaluate policy progress and performance. With these plans in place, there is presently a need to implement supporting policies and activities, to deliver on the national vision.
- On market and non-market approaches, some progress has been made in introducing effective and efficient mechanisms and a robust institutional arrangement. However, political processes are yet to take shape through an integrated framework, with a long-term vision, that drives concrete mitigation and adaptation policies and investment decisions on the ground.
The aim of this workshop is as follows:
- To identify Indonesia’s current priorities and needs related to climate policy tracking and evaluation
- To identify tools, approaches, stakeholders and partners related to those priorities
- To explore possible collaboration between DNPI, WRI and other Indonesian institutions to promote an open-platform between climate policy tracking initiatives
This workshop divided into 4 sessions:
- Government perspectives on climate policy in Indonesia. This session will focus on GOI policy settings, and implementation at various levels of governance (national, sub-national) including tools being used and key barriers and challenges.
- Mapping Indonesia’s climate policy tracking landscape. This session will provide an introduction to and an overarching framework for mapping Indonesia’s climate policy tracking landscape through an interactive roundtable exercise.
- Mapping Climate Change Policy Tracking and Evaluation. This session will be broken down into two parts. The first part will provide an overview of policy evaluation in the current national assessment.[E5] The second part will present an overview of some existing climate policy tracking tools and international experiences that could be applied in the Indonesian context.
- Towards an Open Platform for Policy Tracking in Indonesia. This session will be set as a round table discussion to introduce the idea of open platform for policy tracking and facilitate dialogue on vision and next steps.
Source: MRV AND INVENTORY SYSTEM_DNPI – Pak Dida KLH, Taryn2, Fiscal Support Cimate Chnage Action Head of BKF-RH, Farhan Helmy — Mapping Climate Change Policy Tracking and Evaluation, Climate Policy Tracking Workshop-Carbon Market
Indonesia Launches National Human Resource Development Strategy to Address Climate Change
29 August 2013
Government through the National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) launched the National Strategy for the Development of Human Resources handling of mitigation and adaptation of climate change. National strategy is intended to support the implementation of government policies related to climate change that regulation 61/2011 on the National Action Plan for Reducing Emissions Greenhouse Gases (RAN – GRK) and Presidential Decree 71/2011 on National GHG Inventory.
“This document is expected to be a factor in improving the capacity of human resources in curbing climate change in Indonesia. This is an important part of the vision of the state to build a low economic growth its carbon emissions” said Rachmat Witoelar (President’s Special Envoy for Climate Change Control/Chief Executive of DNPI)
The most important output of this National Strategy is a priority 17 Increased HR activities to support mitigation actions and adaptation to climate change in the next two years and more than 30 other priorities in the long term, particularly in the implementation of national GHG emissions reduction targets that proclaimed president by 26 % up to 41 % compared to the BAU (Business as usual) in 2020.
source : http://dnpi.go.id/portal/en/berita/berita-terbaru/365-indonesia-luncurkan-strategi-nasional-pengembangan-sdm-untuk-penanganan-perubahan-iklim (in Bahasa)
Indonesia – Japan Agree on Bilateral Cooperation Carbon Trading
30 Augustus 2013
Indonesian and Japanese governments agreed to implement the Joint Operation Crediting Mechanism (JCM) which is a bilateral carbon trading scheme. JCM is a bilateral cooperation mechanisms that promote environmentally sound investment to support low-carbon development. For developed countries, Japan is committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) up to the level of 25 % below 1990 by 2020. The target will be achieved through domestic emission reductions and emission reduction through projects funded by the Japanese government and the private sector, but made overseas, particularly in developing countries, through the mechanism of the JCM. This mechanism would be an incentive for Japanese firms to increase investment in low-carbon activities in Indonesia. Japanese government benefit because most of the results in GHG emission reduction investment projects in Indonesia will be claimed as the country’s emissions reduction. Indonesia also get great benefits, both economic and environmental benefits, from the JCM cooperation.
“Through the JCM, we expect trade and investment between Japan and Indonesia will increase both in terms of volume and quality, including use of cleaner technologies and energy efficient. Furthermore, JCM is a form of concrete action from the government in realizing the commitments both addressing climate change, in particular through the implementation of projects of low carbon emission. Indonesia can also claim a share of the emission reductions in projects JCM for achieving emission reduction targets, ” said Rizal Affandi Lukman, Deputy for International Economic Cooperation , the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs .
JCM is expected to be a catalyst for the development of carbon trading schemes are a new type, outside the scheme of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is currently experiencing difficulties due to a drastic drop in demand .
Source: http://dnpi.go.id/portal/en/berita/berita-terbaru/364-indonesia-jepang-sepakati-kerjasama-perdagangan-karbon-bilateral (in Bahasa)