Indonesia has attended the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change since 1994, the first time the conference was held. This year the conference aims to produce a rulebook for how countries that committed to reduce their climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement will go about achieving that goal.
So what's the benefit to Indonesia from being actively involved in the forum for global efforts to combat climate change?
Indonesia is still listed among the world's biggest contributor to global carbon emissions, especially from the forestry sector due to fores fires and deforestation.
But Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya has said that the result of the climate change conference had actually been felt in recent years in terms of peatland governance, for example. The largest proportion of Indonesia's carbon emissions come from peatlands. And tremendous fires across that ecosystem in 2015 contributed to increasing the nation's carbon emissions.
That's why peat management is needed. A number of agreements and bilateral negotiations that took place throughout the UN climate conference have resulted in technical alloys and funding assistance that can be used for the Indonesian government to improve forest governenance. And that could lead to a reduction in deforestation and forest fires while also increasing local peoples' welfare.
Irena Pretika
