Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should focus on efforts to push for a climate deal within the legally binding framework of the Kyoto Protocol to avoid defaulting to a voluntary scheme such as proposed by the U.S., a leading environmental group said.
Maria Athena Ronquillo Ballesteros, a Greenpeace Southeast Asia climate and energy activist, said Yudhoyono should demonstrate more leadership by presenting a clear agenda with the issues that are important to Indonesia and the world.
She said Indonesia should avoid turning the Bali conference into a "circus of issues" by allowing voluntarily-type commitments to interfere with a "serious discussion of Kyoto's nature as a legally binding treaty", she told a news gathering Friday.
Ballesteros said it would be fruitless to base emission reduction efforts on a voluntary scheme, since parties can drop out at any time without suffering any consequence.
Indonesia and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) will hold a climate conference from Dec. 3 to 14 in Bali.
The main task for the conference is to begin to formulate a new multilateral agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the current global agreement that formalizes efforts to curb pollution which expires in 2012.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrial nations to reduce emissions to at least 5 percent below their 1990 levels, although Australia and the U.S. -- which both worry about the economic consequences of implementation -- did not ratify the protocol.
Parties to the protocol have further agreed to cut their emissions levels by 25 to 40 percent, effective in 2012
On Wednesday and Thursday, ministers and senior officials from 36 countries meeting in Bogor, West Java, managed to reach an agreement regarding a new green policy to take effect in 2009.
In his address to the meeting, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for developed nations to honor their emissions commitments, arguing that emissions cuts should be voluntary for developing countries.
In the September meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Sydney, Australia proposed a voluntary scheme for achieving emissions cuts in both developed and developing countries. The scheme met with opposition from most other countries, including Indonesia.
Greenpeace Indonesia political adviser Arief Wicaksono said although Indonesia had agreed to discuss the voluntary scheme, it should not be allowed to jeopardize the Kyoto approach, underlining the understanding that Indonesia wants to maximize gains from both schemes.
Arief said Indonesia did not want to have to choose between two approaches to multilateral emissions control. "Indonesia can get money from the U.S. or Australia faster through reforestation and other programs. But it also hopes to benefit from the Kyoto Protocol through carbon trading and transfer of technology. The U.S. proposal should be discussed on the sideline of the major (Kyoto) events," he said.
If Yudhoyono wanted Indonesia to benefit from the world spotlight in Bali, he said, the President should be brave enough to take action on behalf of developing countries and the world as a whole. He could begin by announcing a total ban on peatland conversion in Indonesia.
Because of carbon emissions from the peatland areas, Indonesia has become the world's third largest emitter, behind the U.S and China, according to the World Bank.
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