SBY ‘played bridging role’, says spokesman

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/22/2009 8:22 AM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did his best to bring about agreement at the Copenhagen climate talks, his spokesman claims, helping raise financing for developing countries to US$100 billion from the initial $10 billion.

“I think Indonesia tried its best during the Copenhagen conference,” presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“President Yudhoyono demonstrated his leadership. From the beginning, Indonesia exceeded its limitations and was able to formulate a new global climate consensus.”

Playing down widespread criticism that Yudhoyono had failed abjectly to achieve anything significant, Dino said the President was one of 26 world leaders who had proposed the conference’s draft text and made some amendments to it.

“Yudhoyono played a bridging role among developing countries, including during negotiations leading to the adoption of financing scheme,” Dino claimed.

“He was one of the 26 leaders ... in the final analysis. We’re happy to be part of the process.”

He added Yudhoyono’s success in this role was “pretty evident” in the fact that he had managed to increase tenfold the financing aid for developing countries by 2020 to $100 billion.

However, Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Joko Arif rebuffed Dino’s claims, saying that amount of financing was far from enough.

“We need at least $40 billion a year for the preservation of tropical forest in developing countries, including in Brazil, Congo and Indonesia,” he said.

He added environmental groups were more concerned with getting developed countries to commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

“And we also hope such a commitment is stipulated in a legally binding agreement,” Joko said.

“However, we all know that a legally binding agreement was not achieved during the Copenhagen conference.”

Dino said the Indonesian delegation had done its best, and that a legally binding deal was “just not realistic”.

“We too were disappointed that there was no legally binding treaty.”

He said Indonesia would take a firmer stance during the 2010 climate talks in Mexico City.

“We will represent developing countries, because we are an island country with a lot of undersea treasures,” he went on.

Dino added Indonesia was seeking to cut its emissions by 26 percent by 2020, also stressing the country could aim for a more substantial 41 percent reduction.

In a press release, the NGO Greenomics Indonesia said the target contradicted the forestry zoning blueprint drawn up by the Forestry Ministry.

Greenomics Indonesia executive director Elfian Effendi said the ministry planned to convert 17.91 million hectares of rainforest into non-forest areas.

“We agree the President’s speech at the conference was very inspiring,” he said. “But we don’t need a speech that ends up as a mere text.

“We need real implementation in the field.” (nia)

Hans David Tampubolon contributed to this report from Jakarta

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