JAKARTA – Why some groups of people dare to say that Indonesia is the biggest contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission?. Do they have the real facts to support their statement?.

Actually, before deciding to stay clinging to their opinion, they should meticulously consider the following facts to find out whether their statement is based on myths or facts.

Study of Ritche and Roser (2017) shows a number of countries, mostly developed countries, as the largest contributor of GHG emissions since 1700s (picture-6). In early 1700s until 1800s, the United Kingdom (UK) is the main contributor of global GHG emissions. Then in early 1800s, the European Union (EU) emerged as the largest contributor of global GHG emissions.

Since 1800s, the United States of America (USA) became the largest contributor, which was then followed by India and China as part of the global Top-3 together with the USA.

The result of the study is in line with the global historical facts, which are related to the industrial revolution. The history shows that the first industrial revolution occurred for the first time in UK in 1760s and later expanded to other European countries.

The contribution of the USA to global GHG emissions started to increase from the 19^th century until early in 20^th century. It was resulted from the impacts of industrial revolution and agricultural revolution in the USA.

The EU (including UK), USA, China, and India have been consistently becoming the world’s largest contributors of GHG emissions until now, with their total shares of emissions reaching 51.3 percent of the global GHG emissions in 2020 (picture-7). Among them, China becomes the largest contributor with its GHG emission reaching 14.3 Gt CO2 eq (28.7 percent). It is followed by the USA at 5.64 Gt CO2 eq (11.3 percent), EU at 3.44 Gt CO2 eq (6.9 percent), and India at 2.21 Gt CO2 eq (4.4 percent).

Compared to the global Top-4 emitters, the GHG emission of Indonesia was only at 1.04 Gt CO2 eq in 2020. Contributing only 2.1 percent of the global GHG emissions, Indonesia’s emission contribution is relatively small compared to those of the world’s largest contributors of GHG emissions. It means that accusing Indonesia as the largest contributor of global GHG emissions is not based on the facts found in reality.

Reference:

• Ritchie H, Roser M. 2017. CO2 and Other Greenhous Gas Emissions [internet]. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse- gas-emissions
• Olivier JGJ, Schure KM, Peters JAHW. 2022. Trends in Global CO2 and Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 2021 Summary Report.

Source: Mitos & Fakta Kelapa Sawit –4^th Edition (Mitos 6-05)