Bappenas: President Prabowo Says Climate Issues Must Not Disrupt National Stability

Minister of National Development Planning (PPN)/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Rachmat Pambudy stated that President Prabowo Subianto has conveyed that climate issues must not disrupt national stability. “(In) a limited meeting, the President conveyed that climate issues must not disrupt national stability. However, without coordinated intervention, climate anomalies have the potential to hinder our strategic achievements,” said Rachmat Pambudy during the National Dialogue agenda “Strengthening Cross-Sector Responses in Facing the Impact of Strong El Niño” at the Bappenas Building, Jakarta, Tuesday. In this context, he stressed that the strong El Niño phenomenon forecast for the second half of 2026 has the potential to hamper national development achievements. A strong El Niño previously occurred in 1997, 2015, and 2023. In the latter year, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded that 23,451 hectares of paddy fields were affected by drought, while Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported that 6,964 hectares experienced crop failure, with dry unhusked rice production falling 1.41 per cent from 54.75 million tonnes in 2022 to 53.98 million tonnes in 2023. Furthermore, data from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) revealed there were 2,051 forest fire incidents. This figure increased drastically compared to forest and land fire incidents in 2022, which numbered only 252. Therefore, Bappenas has outlined strategies in the 2025-2045 National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN) and the 2025-2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), translated into sectoral implementation as a short-term response to the strong El Niño in 2026. These implementations include adjusting planting patterns, using extreme weather-resistant seeds, strengthening irrigation, and controlling forest and land fires; as well as optimising water resource management and solar energy utilisation. Further steps involve strengthening the health system to anticipate increased disease risks and health impacts from El Niño, and optimising opportunities while reducing risks to the productivity of the marine and fisheries sector based on climate information. Consequently, the strategic follow-up offered by Bappenas includes efforts to integrate climate information into decision-making and development policy formulation, and to mainstream El Niño risk into cross-sector development planning and budgeting. The follow-up also includes expanding financing sources through optimising domestic funding, climate finance, disaster pooling funds, adaptation funds, the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), and other innovative financing instruments. Finally, it involves strengthening synergy between central and regional governments, businesses, academia, communities, and development partners in implementation. “Climate issues are issues we can anticipate, climate issues are issues we can mitigate, and climate issues are issues we can overcome. But first, we must understand the latest science to address these issues. Second, we must be united across ministries and agencies, working in an integrated manner, reminding each other, and also helping each other,” said the Head of Bappenas.