House expected to discuss Kyoto Protocol ratification
House expected to discuss Kyoto Protocol ratification
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After having the draft for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on
her desk for more than a year, President Megawati Soekarnoputri
has finally assigned the Office of the State Minister of the
Environment to discuss the draft with the House of Representatives
for enactment into law.
"The assignment letter was signed on April 1, and we hope that
we can seize this opportunity to finally ratify the protocol
because this is a very essential issue," State Minister of the
Environment Nabiel Makarim said on Tuesday.
Now that the President has opened the way for ratification,
Nabiel expected that the draft would be ratified by the current
members of the House's Commission VIII for environmental, science
and technology affairs.
"This is a very important issue. If we don't complete the
ratification quickly, we could miss out on many beneficial
opportunities to compete with other countries," he added.
The House is currently in recess, and is slated to commence on
April 19 with its next plenary session.
Nabiel was referring to the chance of benefiting from the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the protocol that provides
financial benefits from industrialized countries for developing
nations willing to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The CDM is basically a practice of carbon trading, in which
industrialized countries finance projects built in developing
nations that help reduce CO2 to slow down the greenhouse effect.
These donating countries will then be granted leeway on the
amount of their own greenhouse gas emissions.
A country can be involved in the mechanism only after it
ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
Under the CDM, Indonesia, which is projected to produce up to
300 million tons of CO2 in five years, would qualify for project
funds of close to US$1.26 billion.
"Besides which, we can benefit from reforestation projects,"
Nabiel affirmed.
Reforestation is one of the types of projects that can be
implemented under the CDM. Others are the utilization of
renewable energy, replacement of fossil fuels with renewable
sources and waste management.
Indonesia's annual deforestation rate is estimated at around
3.8 million hectares per year, contributing to over 25 percent of
the world's annual total deforestation rate of about 15 million
hectares.
Fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member
countries Singapore and Brunei Darussalam have ratified the Kyoto
Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol, which was conceived in 1997, binds
industrialized countries to reducing their greenhouse gas
emission levels to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during the
period from 2008 to 2012.
The protocol is yet to come into force internationally,
pending Russia's ratification.