Pekanbaru – Indonesia is highly committed to pursuing efforts of reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions nationally and globally.
The ministry of environment and forestry’s (KLHK) Acting Director General of Sustainable Forest Management, Agus Justianto, said that such efforts are in line with the 1945 Constitution article 28H which stipulates that the state is obliged to protect environment and decent life for the general public as the basic commitment of Indonesia in controlling the climate change.
“The presidential regulation (Perpres) No.98/2021 on the carbon economic value to realize the target of Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) underlines the importance of controlling the climate change by measuring the carbon as the key indicator,” Agus Justianto said during the socialization of the environment and forestry minister regulation (Permen LHK) No.7/2023 on carbon trading guidelines in forestry sector in Pekanbaru, Riau province, on Thursday, 24 August 2023.
Carbon has economic value and international dimension in managing natural resources sustainably. To reach the NDC target, the forestry sector is committed to reducing the GHG emissions up to 140 million tons of CO2e in 2030 and realizing the net zero emission in forestry sector.
It is aimed to meet Indonesia’s NDC as its national obligation to help tackle the problem of global climate change, as part of Indonesia’s more ambitious vision stated in the document of LTS-LCCR 2050.
“All stakeholders—the government, private sector, NGOs, all economic sectors and the general public, should support the efforts of controlling the climate change nationally and globally,” he said.
There are a number of strategies that can be applied to control the climate change through the carbon economic value. One of them is through carbon trading mechanism. The carbon trading has two main mechanisms: trading of emission (cap and trade) and carbon offset.
Riau province’s Environment and Forestry Service Head Mamun Murod said that all forestry stakeholders in Riau took advantage of the socialization forum to get better understanding on the carbon trading opportunity that can be developed to benefit the general public in regions economically, environmentally and socially.
Through the cap and trade, all business players are obliged to reduce the GHG emissions through the system of technical agreement on emission cap.
Each of the economic sectors, such as forestry and the power plants, is given an allocation of GHG emission according to their emission cap, and by the end of certain period, the business players have to report the real volume of GHG emission they released. The business players who release GHG emission higher than their emission cap or in deficit, then they are required to purchase the surplus of GHG emission from other business players.
For the carbon offset mechanism, it is the emission reduction or the increase of carbon absorption/storage that are traded. The reduction of GHG emission is gained through the activities of mitigating climate change.
The mitigation of GHG emissions as stipulated in the Permen LHK No.7/2023 can be pursued through 22 activities, which include reduction of deforestation, reduction of forest degradation, development of industrial forests, sustainable forest management, forest rehabilitation, etc. (*)
Source: menlhk.go.id / sawitku.id
