3 Ways West Papua Can Develop Evidence-Based Development Plan to Meet Indonesia’s Climate Target

West Papua Development

by Bonifasius Y. Lody Maturbongs and Barakalla Robyn – 06 April 2020

The following article is taken from WRI-Indonesia. This article is not a message of hopeless, otherwise, a convincing plan. The gap between the plan we could take to reduce global warming and the action we are actually taking can be seen in the execution of the plan. This article shows every action that closes that gap, however small, is meaningful.

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As part of its commitment to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, Indonesia has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 29%-41% against business as usual scenario by 2030. Further, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change elaborated that if global warming exceeds beyond 1.5 C, we will see increased risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

Even though the current global cumulative NDCs from all countries will result in lower greenhouse gas emission, global temperature will still increase approximately 2.6-3.1°C by 2100. Thus, the need for countries to submit more ambitious emissions reduction target has never been more pressing.

Indonesia, a country that contributes a significant amount of greenhouse gas emission, is no exception. Papua and West Papua, provinces rich in forests cover, are vital. The two provinces combined have more than 33 million ha of forest cover, accounting for more than 80% of the total land area. In 2018, the Papua and West Papua governments signed Manokwari Declaration, in which the governments commit to allocating at least 70% of the land area as a protected area. If Indonesia can do so, along with restoring degraded lands in protected areas, Indonesia can avoid 2.8–3.3 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions. That means saving the Papuan forests would take Indonesia to meet its Paris Agreement target, which is to avoid 1.8-2.0 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2030.

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