RI benefits from carbon trade mechanism
Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, Milan, Italy
As the summit on climate change here is set to enter the high level session on Wednesday, participants are completing mechanisms aiming to regain forest land and clean up the air, and also to gain money from related projects.
Meanwhile on Tuesday the Indonesian delegation warned authorities in the country that they must understand the criteria of forest-related projects and not expect them to be applied on any available forest land.
Under the so called carbon trade mechanism, developing countries get access to projects on reforestation and clean energy projects carried out by developed countries.
That way countries like Indonesia gain some revenue while industrialized nations get to meet part of their commitment to cut carbon emission.
Indonesia alone is estimated to sell 16 million tons of carbon emission reduction per year from forests while from clean energy producers like geothermal power plants the government hopes to sell 125 million tons to developed countries every year, generating some US$500 million in the process.
"We have forest potential for carbon sinks that we can use for our advantage," said Liana Bratasida, Deputy Minister of Environment Preservation.
However, "The perception that all forests can be used for such projects simply to raise money is wrong," said Liana, who heads the Indonesian delegation to the 9th Climate Summit of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention.
"The hard fight will be in making decision makers in our own country understand the mechanism," she said.
Hopes are high here on putting the Kyoto Protocol, the above treaty on cutting emission of harmful gases, into effect, despite the refusal of the United States to ratify and Russia's delay.
The 1997 Protocol hangs by a thread pending ratification by at least 55 parties. The treaty rules that carbon dioxide emissions should be cut by 5 percent from levels in 1990 by 2008 to 2012.
Liana said that such projects could not be carried out on forest land in national parks, which should be directly protected and managed by the government.
She said the Indonesian delegation was renegotiating, among other things, the definition of a forestry database line required for forestry projects under the mechanism.
Indonesia expects that forestry database from 1999 onwards would be allowed, since it would be hard to meet the initial requirement of forestry database from below the year 1990.
Some groups however fear that the carbon trade idea might lead to abuse to expropriate land and territories, thus violating fundamental rights. Others insist that developing countries should determine the use of such projects for their own advantage as they would be hosting the projects.
Moekti H. Soejachmoen of Pelangi, a research body on environment issues, earlier raised skepticism of the benefit of such forestry projects in Indonesia.
"The clean development mechanism alone would not reduce forest destruction and degradation. Not until there is real institutional reform," she said.
Besides, she said, measures such as reforestation were not likely to survive illegal logging, forest fires or changes in regulations, making investment in forestry projects "very risky".
"Others, like renewable energy projects, are acceptable in the present situation, not forestry," Moekti said.
In September in a regional forum Indonesia offered ten projects, ranging from geothermal, hydro, biomass waste, energy efficiency and the Java-Bali generator project to foreign buyers.