Climate Change in Indonesia
Climate change is expected to severely affect Indonesia: increased natural disasters will destroy livelihoods and put food security at risk.
At the same time Indonesia is among the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, mainly due to deforestation, degradation of forests and peat land and forest fires. FAO states that Indonesia lost about 24% of its forest cover and about 60% of forest biomass between 1990 and 2005. Globally, almost one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions are forest related.
The task of slowing down forest loss is very challenging, especially in countries such as Indonesia where the drivers of deforestation and degradation are both powerful and persistent, including:
- Conversion of forests into agricultural plantations such as oil palm;
- Unsustainable levels of logging from lawful forest concessions;
- Small and large scale illegal logging;
- Expansion of mining areas;
- Forest clearance for farming, settlements and infrastructure
Initiatives to reduce forest-related emissions will boost efforts to protect and sustainably manage forests, and thus maintain the capacity of forest ecosystems to provide vital goods and services to the environment and humans
Intact ecosystem functions can also help reduce Indonesia's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change like droughts or extreme weather events.
Germany's Pledge of Support
Climate change jeopardizes progress towards the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.
Climate change is therefore a major focus of German development cooperation and a priority area in the cooperation with Indonesia. The two countries concluded a strategic partnership on climate change in 2007, focusing on three issues: forests, emissions in cities and geothermal energy.
On forests, Germany supports Indonesia's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the sector, to conserve forest biodiversity within the regional Heart of Borneo Initiative and to implement sustainable forest management for the benefit of the people. Germany's immediate action will focus on helping Indonesia to get ready for the implementation of a future REDD mechanism (readiness process).
The German Development Bank KfW will provide support for the FC-Module of FORCLIME (20 million EUR grant) financed by BMZ. In addition, KfW finances two projects, the Harapan Rainforest Project (7.575 million EUR) and the 0.878 million EUR project “Securing natural carbon sinks and habitats in the Heart of Borneo“, implemented by WWF. The funds for these two projects are made available by BMU through its “International Climate Initiative” (ICI).
GIZ projects focus on forests, the FORCLIME (Forests and Climate Change Programme) financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the MRPP (Merang REDD Pilot Project), financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). However, the MRPP has been completed on December 2011.
Another GIZ project, entitled PAKLIM, focuses on emissions in cities and geothermal energy.
The Importance of Acting Now
In the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Parry et al. 2007), scientists confirm that global temperature rise must be limited to 2°C if we are to prevent the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change.
To achieve this, the IPCC recommends that, by 2020, industrialized countries should reduce their emissions by as much as 40 per cent from 1990 levels. However, following the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, if global targets are to be met, it is no longer an option to disregard the activities of developing countries. Developing countries must also take action and reduce their projected rate of increase of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, although emission reduction efforts to date have focused on the energy sector, future targets cannot be achieved unless forests and land use change are incorporated comprehensively into progressive climate change regimes, and adequate incentive schemes are realized.
