Low Carbon News in Indonesia in November 2014
RI hosts inaugural sessions of REDD+ Academy
The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta | Sun, November 02 2014, 8:19 PM
Indonesia is hosting inaugural sessions of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Academy in Yogyakarta, which has been established to aid the global fight against deforestation by creating economic value from carbon stored in forests.
Head of REDD+ Indonesia, Heru Prasetyo, said it was crucial for countries to collaborate and remain vigilant in the fight against deforestation and forest degradation.
“This aims to provide knowledge on what sustainability means; what it means in relation to forests and the price we will pay if we don’t address this matter now,” Heru said in the opening of the program, which began on Oct. 28 and will conclude on Nov. 7.
As many as 83 government representatives from Asia-Pacific countries, members of the Indonesian House of Representatives and journalists are participating in the training, which is the first in a number of events that will build momentum toward achieving a “green economy”.
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/02/ri-hosts-inaugural-sessions-redd-academy.html
PLN to spend $22.5 billion on power plants
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta |Tue, November 04 2014, 8:14 AM
State-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has announced plans to spend around US$22.5 billion to participate in the construction of 35,000-megawatt (MW) power plants, a project initiated by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to provide sufficient electricity to the whole nation.
Electricity consumption in Indonesia is expected to hit 386 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2020, more than double the 189 TWh consumed last year. Average growth per year between 2013 and 2022 is forecast to reach 8.4 percent.
Electricity demand in Java and Bali is expected to reach 275 TWh of power by 2022 from 144 TWh last year, with an annual average growth of around 7.6 percent.
Nur explained that for the 35,000-MW project alone, PLN and the selected IPP would mostly construct steam-fueled power plants (PLTU) as well as a number of hydro power plants (PLTA).
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/04/pln-spend-225-billion-power-plants.html
Study: Nation with Friendly People are More Eco-Friendly
TEMPO.CO, Tuesday, 04 November, 2014 | 10:48 WIB
Jakarta
A research led by Professor Jacob B. Hirsh from University of Toronto, Kansas, United States, had found that nations with friendly and open residents are more concerned about topics such as the environment.
The study examined nation-level personality traits from a database of 12,156 people in 46 countries. National personality differences, reflecting average trait profiles of a country’s residents, were t5hen used to predict scores on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
The EPI, developed at Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks countries across 20 environmental indicators, including CO2 emission levels, use of renewable energy, and air quality.
Higher scores on the EPI, reflecting more environmentally sustainable policies and practices, directly correlated with national levels of two personality traits. Namely agreeableness, which reflects empathy and compassion, and openness, which suggests ‘cognitive flexibility’ and the appreciation of objects and ideas.
From 46 countries assessed for their EPI score, Morocco and Nigeria record the lowest while Switzerland come out with the highest score.
Link:
http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2014/11/04/206619379/Study-Nation-with-Friendly-People-are-More-Eco-Friendly
Papua has huge potential in emission reduction: Experts
The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Thu, November 13 2014, 4:22 PM
Experts have said Papua still has huge potential to contribute to land-based carbon emission reduction efforts because it has a lower level of carbon emissions from the land sector compared to other regions in Indonesia. World Agro forestry Centre (ICRAF) Indonesia coordinator Sonya Dewi said Papua was the province with the largest forest coverage in Indonesia.
Dewi was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day ICRAF workshop to review the implementation of the Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation by Civil Society on Land-use Planning for Low Emissions Development Strategy (ParCiMon) and the Locally Appropriate Mitigation Action (LAMA-1) programs.
Dewi said ParCiMon was designed to support Papua in achieving its low emission development targets as part of its contribution to the national climate change mitigation strategy.
“The project is focused on developing the capacity of civil society to be able to participate in the planning, monitoring and evaluation process of land-based low emission development activities,” she said.
The ParCiMon project is being carried out in three regencies – Jayapura, Jayawijaya and Merauke – for four years from January 2013 to December 2016.
Meanwhile, LAMA-1, a capacity-building program to help local administrations in formulating good land use planning as a solution to realizing low emission development, is taking place over four years from July 2013 to May 2017.
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/13/papua-has-huge-potential-emission-reduction-experts.html
Green Growth Is ‘Way to Go,’ Wealthy Nations Declare
The Jakarta Globe Nov 14, 2014
Yogyakarta. Indonesia is expected to take on a leadership role in a regional campaign for green economic growth, with a new report suggesting it is a high time for Southeast Asia — one of the world’s fastest-growing regions — to abandon business as usual and embrace sustainable developments.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in its latest report launched on Tuesday, says Southeast Asia has ample opportunities to make use of green technologies that have become increasingly available, some of which have also been growing more affordable.
Green growth has traditionally been seen as a costly alternative to the status-quo, typically yielding lesser outcomes. For these reasons green growth has long been dispreferred among low-income nations.
But the OECD report argues that green growth should be “the way to go” for the region, that its economic growth can go hand in hand with sustainable developments, as the latter has increasingly become a necessity instead.
“Infrastructure and the built environment are being determined now [in Southeast Asia], defining energy consumption, pollution levels and resilience for decades to come,” according to the report, titled “Towards Green Growth in Southeast Asia.”
Link:
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/green-growth-way-go-wealthy-nations-declare/
New SGC cement plant to use waste-heat power technology
The Jakarta Post, Bangkok | Sun, November 16 2014, 4:30 PM
Thailand-based cement producer Siam Cement Group (SCG) has announced that its new plant in Sukabumi, West Java, which is expected begin operating in 2015, will be equipped with a waste-heat power generation (WHG) system that could reduce energy use by up to 30 percent.
“At the Sukabumi plant, we will use the same technology, the WHG system, that we have been using at our plant in Lampang province in Thailand,” SCG president and CEO Kan Trakulhoo said on the sidelines of the 2014 ASEAN Sustainability Development Symposium in Bangkok, Thailand, this weekend.
“Such technology can transform heat produced during the cement production process into electricity. It could cut 25-30 percent of [our] energy use. This is part of our commitment to establishing plants that are eco-friendly, not only here in Thailand but also in other countries where we have plants,” Kan added.
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/16/new-sgc-cement-plant-use-waste-heat-power-technology.html
Sustainable palm oil enters the UN environmental agenda
The Jakarta Post, Kuala Lumpur | Wed, November 19 2014, 12:16 PM
The development program for socially, environmentally and economically sustainable palm oil is poised to accelerate following the signing of a cooperation agreement between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
UNEP senior executive Douglas Cress noted on Wednesday that cooperation should be a model for the sustainable development of other farm commodities, as the RSPO engaged all representatives from the whole spectrum of the palm oil supply-chain.
He added that the UNEP-RSPO engagement aimed to raise global awareness about sustainable palm oil and generate market demand for an important commodity that has the potential to play a key role in preserving the earth’s biodiversity.
Palm oil is the top-selling vegetable oil in the world and is found in 50 percent of all consumer goods. But conventional, reckless production methods – while offering huge economic and social opportunities for exporting nations — are highly unsustainable and can cause serious damage to the environment.
Indonesia supplies around 31 million metric tons, or 50 percent of the global palm oil output, while Malaysia supplies around 40 percent and Africa and Latin America the remaining 10 percent.
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/19/sustainable-palm-oil-enters-un-environmental-agenda.html