Students say carbon trading not what they're looking for

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Long-time environmentalist Emil Salim on Friday told students looking for work to investigate opportunities in what described was a booming carbon trading business in Indonesia -- but he received a cool response.

"Carbon trading is a future opportunity for you," Emil said.

"Start preparing yourself to become a consultant or broker for emission trading business."

But students at a seminar co-organized by Paramadina University and the United Nations said they were more interested in working for companies abroad or for foreign companies based in Indonesia.

Carbon trading is part of the clean development mechanism (CDM) set in the Kyoto Protocol to encourage countries to reduce emissions and receive financial rewards via the carbon market.

But Gilang Ramadhan, a third-semester international relations student said, "I want to be a diplomat or at least work in foreign countries".

"If I fail to reach my ambition as a diplomat, I will apply for a job with a foreign company in my hometown in Kalimantan," Gilang said.

Emil wanted to sell-in to the students the idea of becoming consultants in the carbon trade industry.

He said such positions would be responsible for calculating carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction and for working on draft projects for the government and United Nations Executive Board.

If the UN Executive Board approved a consultant's project idea, a Certified Emission Reduction (CER) certificate would be granted.

One CER is equal to one ton of CO2 priced between US$5 and $10 on the carbon market.

Once a project is given CERs, a broker would then be able to trade the CERs with developed countries who have the obligation to reduce emissions.

The CERs can be traded with 38 industrialized countries except the United States and Australia who have not agreed to the Kyoto Protocol.

Kyoto obliges developed countries to reduce emissions by five percent from their 1990 level before the year 2012 when the protocol expires.

Many industrialized countries prefer to host carbon reduction projects in developing countries to avoid economic losses.

Emil, who will head the Indonesian delegation at the Bali climate change conference in December, said he was optimistic the CDM scheme would run beyond 2012.

"There will be more funds disbursed for carbon trading," he said.

The UN Executive Board has so far approved 819 projects worldwide -- 34 percent in India and 15 percent in China.

The World Bank said the global carbon market trade volume was worth less than $1 billion in 2004.

But the value skyrocketed to $11 billion in 2005 and to more than $30 billion last year.

The government said Indonesia could supply 2 percent of the global carbon trading market, or equivalent to a reduction of 125 million tons of CO2.

Indonesia so far has approved 24 carbon projects since 2005, nine of which are yet to gain approval from the UN Executive Board.

The government is trying to tap incentives through CDM from its 120 million hectares of forest -- the world's third largest after Brazil and Republic of Congo.