|
 Indonesia will use a two-day informal meeting in Bogor this week to present its greenhouse gas reduction proposal.
Ministers and senior officials dealing with environmental issues from 40 countries will hold a two-day informal ministerial meeting to discuss Indonesia's paper on Wednesday in Bogor, West Java.
The proposal outline includes a new commitment to a post-2012 Kyoto Protocol, financial schemes for adaptation and technology transfer and a blueprint for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing nations (REDD). "The Bogor meeting is to measure the temperature of each country about our paper so as to smooth the Bali conference in December," Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar told The Jakarta Post on Monday. Indonesia will host the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) from Dec. 3 to 15 in Bali. More than 10,000 participants including heads of state, ministers and activists from 189 countries will attend the 13th UNFCCC conference. Rachmat said that there would be about 800 meeting sessions at the Bali conference. "The Bogor meeting is only a discussion among friends as we are not asking for a consensus," he said. "But we hope, it can make the Bali meeting more focused on its agenda." Rachmat, who will preside over the Bogor meeting in his capacity of incoming president of the UNFCCC said that many people expected the Bali meeting to invent new a commitment to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires rich nations listed in its Annex I to reduce their emissions levels by at least five percent below their 1990 levels. The United State and Australia, however, have rejected the emissions reduction target and demanded major developing countries China and India be included in the protocol. The developing countries, including Indonesia, which ratified the Kyoto in 2004, are not obliged to reduce their emissions levels. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to attend the Bogor meeting. "All the delegations will arrive in Bogor on Tuesday evening before the closed-door meeting starts on Wednesday," Rachmat said. Rachmat said Indonesia wanted to see how each delegation responded to the REDD concept in particular. Indonesia has stepped up lobbying efforts, particularly with the world's most forested countries, to have the REDD concept included in the new commitment after the Kyoto Protocol. REDD is aimed at stopped deforestation in order to capture more greenhouse gas emissions. In return, rich countries must provide financial incentives to poorer forested countries. Indonesia currently has 120 million hectares of forests, the world's third largest after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indonesia and the 10 forest countries of Brazil, Cameron, Costa Rica, Columbia, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Peru have set up a coalition to promote the concept at the Bali conference.
|
