Jakarta, Ekuatorial – Around 80 percent of natural disasters in Indonesia caused by climate change which place adaptation efforts more crucial to tackle by government, said an official in Jakarta, on Tuesday (25/11).
“There are two impacts [of climate change], which are direct impacts such as floods, droughts, landslides, and sea level rise. Meanwhile, indirect impacts are infrastructure damages, decreased productivity and increased diseases,” said Dody Sukadri, adviser for low-carbon growth at the National Council on Climate Change or DNPI.
For this reason, Sukadri recommended for government to act quick in adaptation efforts to reduce risks. Furthermore, he said that global funding was still focusing on mitigation effort compare to adaptation. It amounted to 95 percent of the fund allocated for mitigation compare to adaptation actions. He argued that adaptation was as much important as mitigation in increasing natural disaster resilience.
Based on the World Disaster report, global loss caused by natural disasters were increasing significantly for the last decade. From 1950 up to date, the global loss range between US$50 to US$100 million (Rp 610 billion to Rp 1.2 trillion). It will spike up to US$ 300 million (Rp 3.2 trillion) per year by 2020.
Ari Mochamad, secretary for adaptation working group of DNPI, said that mortality rate related to disasters reached 95 percent especially on developing countries for the past twenty years.
“From many researches, one dollar for adaptation effort can secure seven dollar for post-disaster recovery. So, it is crucial in reducing impacts of natural disasters which are decreasing vulnerability level and increasing resilience,” said Mochamad adding that adaptation was urgent to be tackled by government.
Furthermore, he said that Indonesia already had actions to reduce risks of natural disasters but these adaptation programs were not sufficient. On the contrary, they would much probably fail rather than successful. So, he added that government need to ensure whether these adaptation programs were already enough.
“First, structural approach from government and second, non-structural [approach], for instance, social, behavior, values, among others,” he said. “The last one is [the understanding that] climate change is not about environment issues but also economics, social and other sectors. So, all sectors need to contribute to reduce risks.”
He cited that poverty and public’s knowledge need to be enhanced to increase their resistance toward disasters. Januar Hakam