Indonesia's planning minister, Bambang Brodjonegoro, has unveiled plans for sustainable economic development from 2020 that could deliver growth of up to 6 per cent over the next 25 years.
The Low Carbon Development Initiative (LCDI) looks to address Indonesia's atrocious record as the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter after the United States and China, largely because of its environmentally ruinous palm oil sector.
Brodjonegoro released a report with the World Resources Institute, a global research group, and the UK, Norway and Germany.
Most challenging for Jakarta is the issue of palm oil production, which is a key economic driver, a major employer and managed by highly influential business interests.
Low-carbon policies would enable Indonesia to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, exceeding the country's current target of 41 per cent made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the report estimated.
It projected that growth would reach around 6 per cent by 2030.
The economy was currently growing at about 5 per cent but at a heavy environmental toll, meaning GDP growth would fall below 5 per cent after 2020 amid ecological degradation, Brodjonegoro said.
He proposed more sustainable targets with the government adopting policies to increase agricultural productivity and end deforestation, he said.
The policies would ensure the sprawling archipelago kept 41.1 million hectares of primary forests, including nearly 15 million hectares of peatland by 2045, the minister said.
The authorities would improve waste management and try to boost renewable energy sources to move away from fossil fuels, the minister said. Indonesia could generate 15.3 million jobs and save about 16 million hectares of forest by 2045 through environmental development projects, the report argued.
Low-carbon development policies would be included in the next medium-term development plan for 2020-24, Brodjonegoro's report said.