Indonesia will pledge a 29% cut in carbon emissions by 2030
Last September, in a speech to G20 leaders, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government had been working on a policy that would cut emissions by 26% by 2020. However, yesterday the Environment and Forestry Minister of Indonesia said that it will pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 29% by 2030. As the world's third largest greenhouse emitter (from pulp, paper and thermal coal production as well as deforestation, peatland degradation and forest fires) Indonesia's contribution to cutting carbon emissions plays a key part in the success of the UN Paris climate conference later this year.
Indonesia will pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 29% by 2030 the environment and forestry minister said on Wednesday, but gave few details on how this would be done.



Indonesia, ranked third in the amount of land covered by tropical forests and the world’s top palm oil producer, is likely to play a key role at the United Nation’s Paris climate conference later this year.

The country previously committed to curbing emissions growth by 26% by 2020, and a senior government advisor said this week a consultation of stakeholders was due to begin with the aim of increasing the target.

Indonesia will now cut emissions growth by 29% by 2030, Siti Nurbaya Bakar said at a forestry event in the capital, Jakarta, although it was unclear what the baseline year would be.

Although the government was still determining the details of the new pledge, Nurbaya Bakar said developing renewable energy projects such as geothermal, and steering new infrastructure projects and coal mines away from forested areas, would help the country achieve a deeper cut.

“(Economic) development will grow significantly, but also we’ll do better at conservation,” she said.

But in a blow to Indonesia’s efforts to stop rainforest destruction, US-based thinktank World Resources Institute said earlier on Wednesday that tree-cover losses in Indonesia rose last year after falling in 2013.

Indonesia, a major pulp and paper and thermal coal producer, is one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, primarily due to deforestation, peatland degradation and forest fires.

South-east Asia’s largest economy is under international pressure to curb the destruction of carbon-rich peatlands and forests to provide land that many palm oil and mining companies say they need for expansion.

President Joko Widodo, who took office in October 2014, has set ambitious infrastructure targets, including a plan to add 35 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity to the present 52GW over five years.

As the biggest exporter of thermal coal, the majority of this new capacity would likely be powered by coal. Last week Widodo angered green groups when he launched in central Java the construction of what is expected to be south-east Asia’s largest coal-fired power plant.

Late last year Indonesia unveiled targets to triple geothermal power, introducing land and regulatory reforms aimed at making the nation the world’s largest producer of electricity from the alternative energy source.