Pledges, promises, and the voice of approximately 100,000 protesters color the first week of COP26 in Glasgow. 

As the biggest and probably most crucial environmental meeting on earth entering its second week, intense, long hours discussion likely dominates.

For Indonesian delegates, it is time to make sure that pledges made by parties and developed countries are not just bluffing.

The country must secure funding to support its mitigation and adaptation to achieve net-zero by 2060. Indonesia needs approximately 3 percent of its GDP to support transition towards sustainability.

“Now is the time for them to show the money,” said Alue Dohong, Vice Minister of Environmental and Forestry in an interview with Kompas.com at Indonesian Pavilion, Scottish Event Campus.

For him, all pledges are just empty promises until the contract is signed and the money delivered.

The failure of developed countries to raise 100 billion dollars funding for developing countries until 2020 as promised in Copenhagen triggers distrust. 

In addition, Indonesia took experience working on climate change with funding from Norway as a real lesson learned.

“We have delivered the project and evaluation. But Norway distrusts our evaluation just because BPDLH did it,” he said.

BPDLH, the Environmental Fund Management Agency, is a new organization formed by the Indonesian government in 2019 to manage grants for green initiatives.

“For this week, we will need to know the technical agreement. What is the mechanism, conditions, the means of the agreement, how is the payment, and how to evaluate the success,” he said. 

“We want to make sure that the funding offered is for climate change purposes only, not combined with other grants.”

Head of COP26 Delegation Laksmi Dhewanti added that Indonesia must boost the New Collective Quantified Goal in 2030-2050 to estimate the amount of funding mobilized by developed countries.

“If there is no new quantitative target, it will be difficult to measure it,” said Laksmi, who is also Director-General of Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Monday (11/8/2021).  
 
Another crucial issue in the second week of COP26 is related to the format of mitigation, adaptation, and funding reports. Furthermore, Laksmi said all parties would discuss the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) reporting framework to reduce greenhouse gasses. Global adaptation goals will also be an essential topic. 

Some civil society organizations criticized the Indonesian move at COP26. While funding is essential, Indonesia certainly has the power to do more.

Fabby Tumiwa from the Institute of Essential Service Reform said Indonesia could strengthen its policy to achieve net-zero targets sooner. For example, Indonesia should lower emission cap allowance in its newly published carbon tax policy in the energy context.  “No one will invest in renewable energy if the cap is too low. They will pay the penalties for the exceed emission.”

Nadia Hadad from Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan explains current government policy is not aligned with the net sink FOLU target by 2030. “There are 96 million hectares of forest that are not protected by no new permits policy yet.”

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) peatland researcher Daniel Murdiyarso said that while funding is vital to combat climate change, Indonesia will need to rethink the mechanism for better channeling climate funds.

“So those who are the most vulnerable people receive the funds,” he said in an interview yesterday. “It is also new to me, but we all have to exercise to find a way.” 

Last week, several parties expressed their interests to assist Indonesia in adapting and mitigating climate change.

Asian Development Bank promises a portion of USD 25 million for the energy transition, phasing out coal. Indonesia will share the funding with the Philippines. 

The Climate Incentive Fund will also allocate part of the US$2.5 million for the clean energy transition. Indonesia will share the funds with India and South Africa.

The UK is committed to providing a grant of 350 million pounds for climate change mitigation and adaptation funds. In addition, through Friends of Indonesia – Renewable Energy (FIRE), the UK will help Indonesia end a long dark episode of living with coal.

The story was originally published in Indonesian by Kompas.com on November 11, 2021. It was produced as part of the 2021 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.

Featured photo: UNclimatechange under the Common Creative BY-NC-SA 2.0 license via Flickr