Sustainability is More Than Just Carbon: IS2P Warns of Overlooked Threats
Sustainability practices are still often based on a single indicator, namely carbon emissions. This approach is considered risky as it ignores more fundamental issues, from biodiversity to human health.
The issue emerged in the Ngulik webinar by the Indonesian Society of Sustainability Professionals (IS2P) titled Beyond Carbon: The Environment is More Than Just Emissions, on Saturday (18/4/2026). The forum highlighted the need to change the perspective on sustainability, which has so far been viewed as incomplete.
Founder of the Center for Quality Resilience and Sustainability (CQRS) Indonesia, Yuliasman Chaniago, stated that focusing on carbon is not sufficient to address the complexity of environmental problems. “Carbon is important, but human health is not determined by emissions alone. Without biodiversity and a strong environmental system, it will only solve part of the problem,” said Yuliasman.
Yuliasman highlighted the health sector as an example of the imbalance in this approach. Indonesia has indeed achieved more than 98 percent coverage of the National Health Insurance, but the integration of environmental issues and climate change into the health system is still considered weak.
According to him, the global Universal Health Coverage framework has now evolved to include climate risk dimensions, ESG, as well as the One Health and planetary health approaches. This approach views human health, animal health, and the environment as an interconnected system.
However, in Indonesia, this integration has not yet run optimally. Climate risks have not become part of health policies, while the One Health framework has not been formalised in regulations.
“The problem is not with the achievements, but with the depth of integration. Health can no longer be separated from the environmental system that supports it,” said Yuliasman.
He assessed that without this integration, the health system would only be reactive, addressing impacts without touching the root causes triggered by environmental changes.