Are You Serious?

Indonesian is calling the European Parliament to Act!

Jakarta, 26 February 2009

Welcome to Indonesia

The Indonesian Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice (CSF) welcomes the honourable delegation of the European Parliament members in its consultative series of official visit to South East Asia and ASEAN countries on climate change, forestry and updated environmental issues in Indonesia.

CSF – Who we are?

The Indonesian Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice (CSF) exists to call the international world to go back to the original spirit of the UNFCCC and stop selling the future of the earth.

CSF is welcoming the European Union countries’ active participations and communication in taking the lead towards the genuine spirit of tackling climate change impacts through any available and immediate measures, and effective adaptation and mitigation approaches.

Herewith before the delegation of the European Parliament members, we convey our appreciation to the delegation for giving the Indonesian Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice (CSF) providing critical inputs on the contemporary global and national climate change issues in Indonesia in particular roles of the EU shared and common goals but different responsibilities.

Are You Serious to Combat Climate Change?

Climate change is a hard proof of the failure of the global development model. Ways of addressing climate change have not been targeted the root of the problem. The principles of commonality and equality that must have been developed have been spinned to give way for the accumulation of political and economic power to a handful of world's country and political elites, that has dominated global modalities in the exploitation of earth's and nature's assets. The Conference of the Parties (COP) and The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP) sessions, must not be let to be a forum to preserve the dominance of developed countries and world's political elites.

The COP/MOP must explicitly show the seriousness of the international world in addressing climate change challenges. These meetings can not be let to be the mask for merely profit oriented business talk. Climate change is our common problem and it needs a common seriousness to address.

The development of the negotiations in the COP/MOP fora has been shifted to business talks that have drifted away the negotiation from the original direction of the UNFCCC. The original objective of the UNFCCC to "stabilize the anthropogenic green house gases concentration in the atmosphere to a level that will not harm the climatic system", has drifted far away. The convention has been changed into a free market fora that are not reflected the original objective of the UNFCCC.

What we want the EU to address

Deeper cuts

The communication from the commission says that the EU has set target to a 20% reduction in its emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2020, irrespective of whether or not an international agreement is concluded. Furthermore, the EU is willing to go further and sign up to a 30% of reduction target in the context of a sufficiently ambitious and comprehensive international agreement that provide for comparable reductions by other developed countries, and appropriate actions by developing countries.

Indeed, the EU and member countries have not only the capacity but also economic and technology fixes in reducing their domestic and global emissions. However, taking into account both developed countries and developing countries comparable commitments as prerequisite will be effective only if there is willingness to take the lead. Therefore, as the way to show your seriousness in climate changes mitigation and adaption, we challenge the EU and member countries either by individual country initiatives or by a group must take the lead to go beyond 30% whether or not other developed countries take comparable reductions and appropriate actions taken by developing countries.

Voluntary initiatives and voluntary markets

Such initiatives are merely buying times to further delay genuine commitment to reduce emissions from the industrialised and developed countries. The involvement of private sectors in such voluntary initiatives is replacing their core responsibility into investing merely on emissions trading instead of reducing their disastrous operations and exploitations of the world’s resources whilst the world’s climatic systems are at stake.

Abundant importation biofuels target from producing countries

The use of crops for biofuels production for export target implies expansion and competition between subsistent land uses and biofuel plantations in agricultural lands neither for non edible oil crops or used edible oil crops. The direct environmental impacts of the palm plantation expansion are conversion of lands, forests and have become major threats for the remaining Indonesian peatlands. On the other hand, the expansion of plantation has not only increased environmental degradations but also created 576 social conflicts by January 2009.

Indonesia has planted 7.5 million hectares of land with oil palm and produces around 19 million tonnes of CPO. However, this great economic development costs significant 576 land conflicts in 16 provinces out of 23 provinces are developing oil palm plantations in the country.

The EU countries must be aware of that biofuels importation target have and will continue becoming major threats to some parts of the 20 million ha of Indonesian remaining peatlands for future expansion of biofuels plantations and production. For instance, some parts of Borneo and Sumatra, records show that there are increasing number of oil palm permits overlapping with peatlands in particular provinces with oil palm ambitious expansion targets respectively West Kalimantan with 706,379.1 ha, Central Kalimantan 239,388.93 ha, and Riau 792,618.08 ha.

The facts are obvious – the emissions resulting from land-use change in the palm oil-sector may have reached between 3.1 and 4.6 billion tonnes of CO2 – 46 to 68 times the annual saving the EU hopes to be achieving by then from biofuels. Moreover, most disastrous is the production of palm oil-based biodiesel from the conversion of Indonesian peatland tropical forest, requiring 420 years of biofuel production to pay back the carbon debt (Oxfam, 2008).

What are at stakes?

Indeed, having set correct commitment in place, the EU and member countries will contribute to environmentally friendly, socially acceptable, economically beneficial, and culturally appropriate actions and measures in curbing global climate change impacts. Failing to do so it could:

- Justify further expropriation of rights and needs of the local communities, indigenous peoples, and vulnerable women from traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used land, and other natural resources within their social and bio-cultural interaction territories.

- Disrespect principles of withholding or giving free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples in particular their economic, social, and cultural lives relating to preservation biological diversity of forests and peatlands;

- Facilitate either positive or effective means of increasing deforestation and degradation for lacking of consultative and participative actions, socially correct and environmentally safe precautionary measures in place;

- Justify legal and systematic significant uncontrolled emissions from land clearing, drainages, and canalisation due to rapid and unchecked oil palm expansions;

- Undermine the genuine spirit of food security and agrarian sovereignty of the independent developing countries including Indonesia.

It's time to Act!

Indonesia Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice demands:

1. The EU and member countries as the highest level forum in climate change regime direct the negotiation to the original spirit of UNFCCC. The saviour of the earth for the continuity of life must be put as top priority and not poisoned by business interests. The basic rights of all human race on earth to enjoy a healthy environment must be guaranteed and fulfilled.

2. The EU and member countries must commit themselves to reduce their emission according to the UNFCCC and not compromise it with any kind of pollution trading mechanism. The emission reduction is a non negotiable form of compensation of developed industrialized countries for their ecological debts.

3. The EU and member countries should reject any kind of compensation that is not based on just and equality, and far from the original spirit of the UNFCCC, including rejecting any new loan for addressing climate change. Climate justice can not be negotiated and is a consequence of the international commitment under UNFCCC.

4. The EU and member countries as the developed industrialized countries in the Annex‐1 must neither give nor offer fund through any kind of mechanism to the government of Indonesia as long as the government have not fixed the whole aspects of governance to be more transparent, participative, and accountable, with a clear and concrete political will to protect citizen's security and sustainability of ecosystem services. Indonesian peoples can not be let to drown into international business trap hid under the mask of emission reduction projects.

Drafted by Norman Jiwan based on inputs from CSF meeting in Jakarta, 22 February 2009