Govt urged to speed up Kyoto Protocol ratification

Govt urged to speed up Kyoto Protocol ratification

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government needs to quickly ratify the Kyoto Protocol to be
able to compete with other countries in acquiring millions of
U.S. dollars worth of international funding.

The funds are available under a United Nations-run Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) funding scheme provided by developed
countries.

But the ratification was being hindered by lengthy
bureaucratic procedures in drafting the necessary laws, said
Liana Bratasida, the assistant for global environmental affairs
at the Ministry of Environment.

Speaking at a seminar, Liana said the ministry had been trying
to complete the draft law for the past two years. The existing
draft needed to be discussed with other government institutions
before being submitted to the House of Representatives, she said.

The Kyoto Protocol, conceived in 1997, identifies 40
industrialized countries as polluters -- the Annex I group -- and
requires them to lower their greenhouse gas emission levels to
5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

However, to maintain current production levels, Annex I
countries can fund projects in developing countries that lead to
lower emissions.

The donor countries' emissions will then be reduced according
to a scale -- the projects' Certified Emission Reduction (CER)
rate -- determined by the creators of the Kyoto Protocol, the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

"Without ratifying, Indonesia cannot tap into this resource,"
Liana said.

Pertamina's Wayang Windu II geothermal power project in West
Java, with a planned capacity of 110 MW, is estimated to have a
CER of 750,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year.

One ton of CO2 was worth between US$3 and $10, Liana said.
Pertamina could receive a minimum incentive of $2.25 million per
year from 2008 to 2012, the first commitment period of the
protocol, if a donor was interested in buying its CER, she said.

The Kyoto Protocol is not yet being enforced, as it needs one
more Annex I country to ratify it to fulfill its enforcement
quota. Russia is expected to join in March, after its
presidential elections.

Developing countries are nevertheless racing to have their
projects listed at the UNFCC. Indonesia, the only big country in
Asia which is yet to ratify the protocol, has registered only one
project, the Wayang Windu II.

Two other proposals, for a geothermal plant and a cement
factory, were in progress, said Liana.

A proposal must first be registered with a Designated National
Authority (DNA), which monitor CDM projects. The DNA reports to
the executive board of the UNFCC, which verifies the project.

"It takes one to two years to do this," said Liana.

After verification, the project is ready to be offered to
donor countries.

Prior to the forming of Indonesia's DNA, the Ministry of
Environment has taken over these tasks.

Tohmei Takekawa, chief representative of New Energy and
Industrial Technology Development Organization (Nedo) of Japan,
said Japan was interested in funding projects in Indonesia.

"Indonesia is expected to have a 2 percent to 5 percent market
share, but it will face competition from other Asian, as well as
South American, countries," he said.

Japan has already approved five CDM projects amounting to 2.65
million tons of CO2 per year in Kazakhstan, Brazil, Thailand,
South Korea, and Bhutan.