JakartaPost-Dec 3, 2023
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s call for more support from rich countries for their developing counterparts in tackling the climate crisis has left environmentalists unimpressed, who criticize the speech for “giving nothing new” despite global putting pressure on countries to do more to avoid the worst impacts of the crisis. In his address during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP2) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on Friday, Jokowi reasserted Indonesia’s position and commitment to achieving net-zero emissions “by 2060 or sooner”. The President, however, noted that the Southeast Asian country also hoped to reach the climate target while seeing significant economic development, job creation and poverty reduction – a condition Jokowi believed resonated among developing Global South countries. He continued by calling for help from the world, especially richer countries, to work together to help their poorer counterparts reach their climate pledges, citing that the high cost of the transition to a greener and cleaner way of life could not be handled alone. Indonesia would need “more than US$1 trillion to reach the 2060 net-zero emissions target,” Jokowi asserted. The figure was in line with a recent estimation made by energy analysts that Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries would need nearly $1 trillion only for the energy transition, 40 percent of which focused on the early retirement of coal power plants in the region. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2023/12/03/indonesias-call-for-support-in-cop28-shows-no-new-commitment.html.
